'Girls Trip' A Review

Girls Trip is a comedy about four lifelong friends who have drifted apart that take a trip to New Orleans for the Essence Music Festival. Ryan(Regina Hall) is a best-selling author and a celebrity power couple along with her husband Stewart(Mike Colter), she's asked to be the keynote speaker at the Essence Fest and takes the engagement as a good way to get her friends back together after five years without seeing each other. Sasha(Queen Latifah) a gossip blogger,. Lisa(Jada Pinkett Smith) single mother of two, and Dina(Tiffany Haddish) the lone adulthood holdout join Ryan in New Orleans and the four reconnect.

All four leads give great performances and the chemistry they share is magnetic. The film allows them, for the most part, to simply be friends together in a fun setting mostly devoid of distracting plot devices. We are invited in to this longstanding friendship and watch it reignite as their time apart melts away, its like spending time with some of your oldest friends with all the shared history, spontaneity, conflict and comfort that can afford. Hall bears the brunt of the narrative work as her character is the one around which much of the film's tension revolves, she plays the character with a veneer of confidence and ambition but ultimately with significant vulnerability with a great monologue towards the end. Latifah is compelling and effortless, as she always is although its great to see her in a role with some substantial screen time unlike some of her recent supporting credits. Pinkett Smith plays somewhat against type as the buttoned-up responsible mother of two which allows her(and us) to have a lot of fun as she gradually cuts loose. But the most delicious, the most ferocious, the most transcendent performance comes from Haddish who puts in an award winning turn as the aggressive, loyal, partying Peter Pan of the quartet. She broadcasts a contagious fun energy with heart and hilarity to spare. A break out turn.

There is tension in the film, problems to be solved both within the group and with each of them and those are all handled with balance that never sacrifices the group's kinship or the film's humor(which is prevalent and delightfully raunchy at times). Filming at the actual Essence Festival gives the film a kinetic atmosphere with the four leads watching actual concerts, navigating a crowded Bourbon St, and interacting with stars playing themselves. One of the greatest scenes is a dance off with a younger version of the group while the four are coming down of off Absinthe. The argument could be made that the film's third act diverges into sentiment but the reality is that it has a message, one that is potent and elevates and gives context and dimension to all the playfulness and camaraderie that has gone before it.

At times heartwarming, often uproarious, always captivating, the four excellent leads anchor the best comedy of the year.

Don't Miss It.