Welcome back to Tuesday Night is Film Night. This week we check out a film from 2013, but will the bells be ringing as we watch;
The Big Wedding
We should just point out at this juncture that this movie is the 200th TNiFN film! Happy anniversary to us!
Back to the blog.
With an all star cast and a quirky storyline this comedy has all the makings of being a fun movie. Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon head up the cast list in this 2013 comedy where Don (De Niro) and Ellie (Keaton) are a divorced couple. Don is now living with Bebe (Sarandon). Don and Ellie have two children; Lyla and Jared, plus an adopted son Alejandro, played by Katherine Heigl (27 Dresses), Topher Grace and Ben Barnes respectively.
With it so far? It gets worse.
Alejandro is marrying Missy (Amanda Seyfried), however Alejandro's natural, Colombian mother is a devout Catholic and will be attending the wedding and as such would be aghast to know that Alejandro's adopted parents are divorced, a huge sin apparently.
So there's only one thing for it, apart from tell truth obviously and that is to lie and assume that Don and Ellie are still married. Clearly this subterfuge will help smooth the waters between Alejandro, his natural mother and the Pope, but clearly Bebe has her nose put out of joint, even though Ellie was (and still is, to a point) her best friend.
Still maintaining a grip on the plot?
It is an overtly complicated film, in as such the multiplicity of layers can take awhile to untangle at first, but once the characters and relationships have been established, things become clearer, but that's when it starts to unravel again and all sorts of chaos ensues, whilst trying to maintain the facade to save face in front of the Catholics.
The comedy is low key and subtle in places and laugh out loud in others, but not overly comedic. The stand out cast member for us was De Niro, he plays the somewhat louche Don very well and he has a natural talent for swearing in the right manner to make it totally believable. Robin Williams also makes an appearance as the priest who is to officiate at the wedding and although his scenes are few, he maintains a high standard and fits perfectly into the role.
Overall the film was mediocre, the comedy and sentiment were not outstanding and although the plot was farcical, the writing didn't fully capitalise on this and we were left wanting more. The multi-faceted, interleaved threads were confusing at first, but relevant to the whole story, but perhaps this overly complicated the story and the comedy suffered as a result.
In summation, it's a nice little film, running in at 89 minutes, but just not enough conviction to make it a better than "good" film.
TNiFN Rating 67%
IMDB Link
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