Dina (Haddish) is the live wire, first
introduced by way of a dizzying scene in
which she’s fired, rejects her dismissal, and
makes it clear that she may well be the
world’s worst employee in the process. Lisa
(Pinkett Smith) is the beleaguered mom,
freshly divorced and ruthlessly dedicated
to her kids, who desperately needs a
vacation to shake her up. Like Ryan,
Queen Latifah’s Sasha is also in the public
eye, thanks to her popular gossip blog,
which might not be nearly as profitable as
her affluent lifestyle lets on. From the jump,
fissures between the ladies are obvious —
it’s not just busy lifestyles keeping them
apart — and “Girls Trip” easily leans into
emotional beats while also piling on the
humor.
Haddish’s zippy charisma sets the tone
early, zinging between bouts of physical
comedy (no one lunges at a co-star with
as much pizzazz as Haddish) and
wonderfully inappropriate one-liners that
are as shocking as they are masterfully
delivered. Later in the film, Haddish serves
up what will likely become contemporary
cinema’s best example of how to use fruit
to simulate sex acts (sorry, “American Pie”),
a sequence so deliciously raunchy that it’s
worth the price of admission alone.
But Dina, for all her big talk and hilarious
faults, is also an exceedingly loyal friend,
and that will come in handy when “Girls Trip” doubles down on the very big secret at its center. It’s
that secret that is the source of much of the film’s drama, and while it makes for a bit of an
overstuffed feature (few comedies demand running times that
push past two hours, including this one), it’s a narrative device that drives the film forward into
deeper waters than pure laughs could provide.
But those pure laughs are more than enough to sustain
the summer’s best comedy so far, as “Girls Trip” nails laugh after laugh even amidst — and
oftentimes because of — dramatic issues that wouldn’t be out of place in a Lifetime movie. As the
ladies make their way through all the glory Essence Fest has to offer, including run-ins with a slew of
big talents in a seemingly never-ending parade of cameos (Diddy makes off with the best one,
predictably bolstered by Haddish’s involvement) and at least one wildly ill-inconceived adventure
fueled by absinthe, “Girls Trip” keeps the momentum whirling ever onward into the next big
comedic set piece. That it all ends with a heartwarming reveal doesn’t dilute its more raucous
sensibilities; it only makes it more clear why Lee and his ladies should think about turning this “Girls
Trip” into a franchise that can spawn more uproarious vacations.