By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Cast: Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Larenz Tate, Mike Colter, Kate Walsh, Kofi Siriboe, Deborah Ayorinde and Lara Grice.
Rating: Very Good.
Malcolm D. Lee, writer/director of “The Best Man” and “The Best Man Holiday” brings “Girls Trip”, a comedy that I was very surprise with it´s result.
The movie tells the story of Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) a successful writer who is best friends with over protecting mother and friend Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), journalist Sasha (Queen Latifah) and loud mouth Dina (Tiffany Haddish).
The four are best friends, three of them find out that Ryan is going to New Orleans for a Keynote Presentation and go with her.
This trip will test not only their friendship but also the group of four will appreciate and learn the meaning and value of what a friendship is all about.
Like in most of his films, Malcolm D. Lee again touched another subject that is related to values and with “Girls Trip” the subject he brought was friendship.
I can say that he is a director that likes to touch subjects that are related to society values and he did it really well.
And honestly I was not expecting anything from “Girls Trip”. For moments I thought it was going to be the typical cheezy comedy of four friends with predictable moments but again I was wrong.
In fact I did really enjoy the film and I was very surprised with the result of it.
The screenplay written by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver was written with a lot of detail and humor. The characters that they created in this film are so much fun and yes it´s a pleasure seeing this movies with this kind of characters in them.
Malcolm D. Lee´s directing hit the right marks and he knew how to capture those moments like how the friends had internal and external conflicts and he knew how to portray them.
I liked how Lee illustrated the life in New Orleans in a summer festival and the life of a city that has a lot of charm.
It was interesting that we see the life of New Orleans from a point of view that has never seen before in this film and did work.
The chemistry between the main characters it´s really good and I like the fact that all of the characters have their conflicts really marked.
Normally in this kind of movies that involves a group of friends can have a tendency to fail. Yes, they are different but at the same they are very similar and I believe that your characters have to be all the way different and try to have something less in common as possible.
I remember when 2017 recently started and I saw the first trailers of this film and my reaction was everything but positive.
I had prejudgments against this film and I was totally wrong about what I thought about it.
I´m not a big fan of how they use voiceover in this kind of movies since I believe that you over explain what happens but I understand why they used it in this occasion. I still think that with imagery and facts should have been enough.
The only problem that I had with the movie was the length. For a movie of this genre it could have been much shorter since it´s a comedy but they got to much into detail, which I understand why they did it but still it works. I feel that some scenes could have been shorter and still would have worked.
Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish, did a very good job on screen and it was so much fun watching this four ladies.
“Girls Trip” is one big surprise of this year and I highly recommend this film. I believe that you will be touched, moved and you will leave the theater with a huge learning lesson once you see this film.