Movie Review: 'Pitch Perfect 3'

Low expectations are sometimes key to enjoying a particular kind of movie. For example, the third movie in a franchise that was only barely capable of supporting one sequel. The trailer for Pitch Perfect 3 turned out to be the perfect introduction to the supposed finale of the Pitch Perfect trilogy. The trailer was so bad that I expected the characters in the movie to walk on screen, fart, and give me the finger before walking off. That would have been only a slight improvement over that trailer.

What a nice surprise then to find that Pitch Perfect 3 is way better than the trailer indicated. Sure, the film is yet another iteration of the comedy of the awkward pause which has come to plague modern comedy since its introduction in the mid-oughts, but those jokes really only hang around the first half of the film. In the second half we get actual funny jokes and a bizarre plot that works even as it has no business working.

We pick up the story of The Bellas, the A Cappella singing group at the center of this franchise, struggling to find their place in the real world. Becca (Anna Kendrick) has her dream job as a music producer turning into a nightmare when she deals with a talentless rapper who dislikes her changes to his terrible song. Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) is out of work except for her street show performances as Fat Amy Whinehouse and the rest of the Bellas are either bored or merely dissatisfied.

When the group mistakes an invitation to a party for an invitation to perform together at a party, they throw on their Bellas gear only to find humiliation and embarrassment waiting for them. Drowning their sorrows, they concoct a plan to get themselves on a USO Tour where they can at least spend time performing together. That the USO Tour also carries the opportunity to perform and tour with rap god D.J. Khaled makes it all the more exciting.

This is all pretty low-energy plot material and for much of the first half of the film as this plot description is playing out, I was struggling to stay invested. As I mentioned earlier, the first half is weighed down by the modern comedy plague of the comedy of the awkward pause. The comedy of the awkward pause is a modern comedy staple in which a seemingly normal character says something outlandish or out of character and the rest of the cast pauses, as if a record scratch had been heard and the scene peters out with the protagonists carrying on uncomfortably.

If the entirety of Pitch Perfect 3 had carried on with the same awful, awkward rhythm I would have eventually started hurling things at the screen. Then John Lithgow shows up as Rebel Wilson’s crazy father and things completely began to turn around. Suddenly, the movie started doing actual jokes and I was actually laughing. Wilson herself seems to put the whole movie on her back and willed it toward funny.

The plot with Lithgow is insane and perhaps should not be in this movie as it runs entirely against what the Pitch Perfect movies have been. It involves fight scenes and explosions and terrorism and yet it’s completely hysterical. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to turn Rebel Wilson into an action heroine is a minor genius. It should not work but I was laughing quite hard.

Is Pitch Perfect 3 a great movie? No, far from it, but it is a passably good watch. The second half turns the entire movie around by dropping the comedy of the awkward pause and replacing it with real jokes, even jokes that are part of the plot that is developing rather than jokes for the sake of jokes. I couldn’t believe where this movie was going but I loved the outlandish way it got where it was going.

I am surprised to say this but I do recommend Pitch Perfect 3.