After being laid off due to their store closing, Barb (Annie Mumolo) and Star (Kristen Wiig) decide to go on a vacation far from their midwestern town to beautiful Vista del Mar.  While vacationing at the beach resort, they meet the handsome Edgar (Jamie Dornan) who does little in the way of resisting their advances.  Their vacation is put at risk, however, when Shannon (also Kristin Wiig) a fifthly rich and slightly insane childhood resident of the town returns to Vista del Mar to enact her revenge on the townspeople she claims have wronged her. 

While Barb and Star go to Vista del Mar is the narrative feature debut for director Josh Greenbaum, the TV veteran is no stranger to comedy and is working off a punchy script penned by the always funny title leads.  Mumolo and Wiig have great chemistry as two life-long residents of their small town, over-exaggerating the middle-class stereotypes in a broad-reaching, delightful way that seeks more to highlight than to ridicule which is what makes the buddy comedy work so well.  They are able to riff and banter with each other for prolonged sequences that become some of the best jokes of the film; one example being as they complete each other’s sentences ruminating on the life and times of a free-wheeling woman, Trish, who exists only in their imaginations. 

The film jumps feet first into absolute absurdity with the Shannon storyline.  Playing like a parody of an Austin Powers’ supervillain, she spells out her overcomplicated master plan to destroy Vista del Mar.  The hair-brained plan, reminiscent of Gordie’s story told in Stand by Me (1986), is necessary for the plot, but far and away is also the weakest aspect of the film.  The premise of Barb and Star is pretty simple and can stand on its own, but this subplot which drives some of the narrative elements forward stretches the film to 107 minutes and causes it to lose much of its momentum and therefore drags in the tail end of the middle act.  The comedy script is very clearly treading water as it tries to pull its two plotlines towards an intersection in preparation for the finale. 

Outside of that little bit of lag late in the film, otherwise, Barb and Star moves at a decent clip which is to be expected for a comedy.  The jokes and the setups are, unsurprisingly given Wiig’s involvement on the page and screen, similar to the more lighthearted and goofy sketches seen on Saturday Night Live.  Wiig and Mumolo are not paving new ground for comedy here, but they are embracing what works and creating many memorable moments that gain their laughs not just because they lean so far left field, but because the entire cast commits themselves to the inane nature of the film. 

A great example of total commitment to the bit comes in Dornan’s Edgar.  The chiseled, serious actor takes a silly turn as Shannon’s infatuated henchman and is surprisingly effective in the role of the puppy-love-stricken man.  There is a musical number early in the second act which – despite the poor lyrical work – is effective because Dornan embraces the playfulness of the sequence.  He leans into the grandiosity of the Proclamations of Love song numbers we are all so familiar with and the film pokes fun, too, as he toils in the sand, serenades to the seagulls, and receives soulful backing melody. 

Barb and Star go to Vista del Mar is a bit of a kitchen sink comedy in that the duo behind the laughs stuff so much into the plot and the jokes that one cannot help but to chuckle at the sheer volume of stuff that is presented on screen.  It is a refreshing, lighthearted comedy that does not focus on beating up on a victim with its jokes, but rather creates absurd scenarios and problems for its two loveable oddball characters to work out and solve.  It follows the general charting of a buddy comedy and drives homes the standard message of friendship, and its kind approach is both welcomed and necessary in today’s world that is so quick to punch down.