THE BIG WEDDING (2013)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Justin Zackham
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes, Diane Keaton, Christa Campbell, Marc Blucas, Kyle Bornheimer
RunTime: 1 hr 29 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual References and Some Nudity)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films & InnoForm Media
Official Website: http://www.emperor-themovie.com

Opening Day: 9 May 2013

Synopsis: THE BIG WEDDING is a smart, witty and often outrageous comedy that gives an intimate view of a modern family through their highs and lows over a single weekend of celebration. Don and Ellie Griffin (Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton), long divorced, are suddenly thrown back together for the sake of their adopted son’s wedding when his very conservative biological mother decides to come in for the nuptials. The Griffin’s soon learn that acting the happily married couple is not so easy and especially awkward for Don’s girlfriend, Bebe (Sarandon). In the midst of these charades, the Griffin’s children face their own troubles as Lyla (Katherine Heigl) struggles with a secret, Jared (Topher Grace) contemplates his love life or lack thereof, and Alejandro (Ben Barnes) tries to keep everyone together, including his new bride, Missy (Amanda Seyfried) who is appeasing her parents by getting married, by a priest (Robin Williams) in a traditional Catholic wedding. Throughout the film, the Griffin’s are amusingly and poignantly forced to watch their past, present and future unravel for everyone to see... all while trying not to kill each other in the process.

Movie Review:

One is very suspicious when a star-studded cast fronts the line-up for what seems to be a simple romantic comedy. Are they there to hide a lacklustre plot? Or is this what it takes for most rom-coms to succeed nowadays?

The title of this film gives a lot away, and it should come as no surprise that with a big wedding, comes…a big reunion. The story develops in this vein: Alejandro Griffin (Ben Barnes) and Missy O’Connor (Amanda Seyfried) are getting married. The young couple is deeply in love, and the only thing that could get in the way of blessings is the adopted Alejandro’s dysfunctional family, or more precisely, adoptive parents, and his conservative, Catholic birth mother come to visit. What ensues is a weekend of pretense and guises undertaken by the Griffins to ensure that Alejandro and Missy walk down the aisle with nary a hitch. But, as expected, charades fall apart and in the process, more than a few skeletons in the closet surface to chaotic but heartwarming consequences in a climactic wedding scene, set in a Martha Stewart-approved pastel-and-cream pavilion by the lake typical of bourgeois American, suburbia-type events no less.

With all that visual fluff and the shameless milking of a famous cast on its poster alone, it’s easy to stereotype films like The Big Wedding, but as it unfolds, it’s hard not to. Directed by Justin Zackham, better known for the film The Bucket List (2007), The Big Wedding is one of what many would call Hollywood’s bread-and-butter films— those which take little artistic effort to pull off and solely produced to keep accounts afloat and stars happy during non-blockbuster seasons. The jokes in the film are often flat, most notably being a forced love interest between Jared (Topher Grace) and Alejandro’s inexplicably promiscuous Spanish sister Nuria (Ana Ayora) that generates forced smirks at best. Many other instances in the script reflect this cringe-worthy pattern of premature jokes served cold to distribute precious air time amongst the multitude of stars.

A final litmus test in which I tried to lift the wool over my eyes by imagining the exact same script being delivered by an unknown cast, drew my attention to what was ultimately a severely lacking script. It’s apparent that the producers have gone to great lengths to bring together a very colourful cast for a very mediocre story. On one hand, we have the shining old guard, made up of Robert de Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams, who starred in their fair share of “serious films” and displayed “serious acting chops” over the years. On the other, we have the up-and-coming starlets and teen heartthrobs, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes and rom-com darling Katherine Heigl, to appeal to a younger generation who might have missed—just by a few years—the winsome formula of the old school rom-com craze launched with Four Weddings and a Funeral (1996).

But what studio executives still don’t understand, is that it’s really a chicken-and-egg situation, because if they were keenly banking on the face times of a popular cast alone for the film to shine, a script that is neither witty nor memorable enough will ultimately give a half empty glass away. I’m not sure the adapted screenplay from the original French film Mon frère se marie (2006), does the central story much justice. I don’t like bread-and-butter films like this for the reason that stars get an excuse to be lazy; lapses in chemistry happen with a film full of too many famous celebrities who don’t quite gel. This shows in an unconvincing and underdeveloped romance between newlyweds-to-be, Alejandro and Missy, just as the relationship between straight-talking sister Lyla (Katherine Heigl) and her brother Jared was a disastrous blur.

The core theme about lying to protect one’s loved ones is ultimately too hackneyed, although the dynamics between Sarandon and Keaton, who plays de Niro’s current and ex-wife respectively, form the only admirable and refreshing moments of the film, even as it dangerously strays into territory that potentially celebrates infidelity.

There are plenty of romantic comedies out there that pack better wit.

Movie Rating:

(If you’re into sub-par romantic comedies that try to mask its flaws with a star-studded cast, then this movie is certainly one for you)

Review by Tay Huizhen