Film Review-Big Wedding
Director: Justin Zackham
Screenplay: Justin Zackham
Cast: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Topher Grace, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Ben Barnes, Christine Ebersole, David Rasche
Genre: Romantic comedy
Rating: **
Venue: Ster Kinekor Maerua Mall Cine 3
Some things are best left to the young and must never, I repeat never, be attempted by older people, regardless whether they are high-profile star actors. Susan Saradon, Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton have just proven that in Big Wedding.
Divorced couple Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) have three children, Lyla (Katherine Heigl), Jared (Topher Grace) and Alejandro(Ben Barnes) who they adopted from Colombia. Eventually after the divorce, Ellie moves away and Don hooks up with Bebe (Susan Saradon), Ellie’s best friend. When Alejandro is about to get married, he informs Don And Ellie that he never told his natural mother, who is so traditional, that the adoptive parents got divorced. And mama is coming for the wedding so he asks them if they can pretend still to be married. Don and Ellie reluctantly agree to this and what follows is a series of mishaps, truth revelations, a surprise pregnancy and a loss of virginity.
Here comes boredom, here comes boredom and church bells. That’s all I could think of throughout the entire movie. Another thing that came to mind and made me cringe is how an all-star cast can manage to make such fools of themselves, solidly discrediting their acting skills with their mundane jokes and terrible attempts at being funny.
Big Wedding is a terrible remake of 2006 French film, Mon frere se marie (My brother is getting married). It’s another one in the long and sadly ever-growing line of Hollywood disaster built on the premise that it’s enough to throw together a bunch of star actors to get a blockbuster. When will Hollywood directors learn that you can not make a great movie by throwing in a bunch of Hollywood’s greatest talent and a paper thin plot that seems like it was written by a pervert?. The sex jokes try to make it bearable, there are some witty punch lines here and there but they are not enough to save face.
The film is an insult to the cast. One would think that Saradon, De Niro, Keaton and Williams would deliver an epic movie together only to be proven wrong. I experiences a range of divergent emotions from wanting to scream stop, to wanting to fall off my chair at the meaningless plot of the images on the widescreen in front of me. Robin Williams plays the usual embarrassing and funny character with disastrous consequences as priest, Father Moinighan. This all-star cast does what they can for this romantic comedy but sadly it’s not nearly enough. Not even the usual bickering by Missy’s (Amanda Seyfried) parents, Barry (David Rasche) and Muffin (Christine Ebersole) could do anything but provide one-line revelations (stories of lesbianism, infidelity) of their entanglements with the main family members. Surely this parody could have been that fine comedy when everything comes crashing down at one large, social gathering, but alas, the Big Wedding fell flat on its face, not knowing exactly what to do with talent. It is hampered by an extremely unmoving and clichéd storyline that is beyond boring.
If you are a middle aged woman you will probably enjoy this, its definitely not for the faint hearted or the young
audience. As entertainment, the Big Wedding is a big flop. The director should not have bothered to invite anyone to this disaster that does not live up to expectations despite its star-studded cast.
