The Big Wedding

The Big Wedding

Rated R and Released in Grand Rapids 4/26/13

Reviewed 5/2/13 at Celebration North Theatre in Grand Rapids, MI

with Lynne

1 1/2 out of 5 Js in QUIET Rating System

With all the good actors in this movie, the expectation is a little higher, but with forced random profanity and a lot of raunch, it doesn't produce too many laughs. Armed with our newly purchased popcorn buckets for the season, Lynne and I got to the theatre for a late afternoon flick. We both thought there were a few funny moments, but overall it's pretty forgettable.

Divorced couple Don and Elie (Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton) are forced to reunite for their adopted son Alejandro's (Ben Barnes) and fiancé Missy's (Amanda Seyfried) wedding. This is due to Alejandro's strict Catholic birth mother and sister who are coming to the wedding from his birthland Columbia. Divorce is something mother doesn't tolerate and her birth son has not told her Don and Elie have been split up for 10 years. It was just easier to keep up the lie over the years but with her coming to the wedding it is a little too late to divulge the truth. Don's current feisty wife Bebe (Susan Sarandon) has to step aside to keep up the farce and she is justifiably a little hurt and resentful. Brother and sister to the groom played by Topher Grace and Katherine Heigl are a big disappointment in this. Not all their faults, just so-so parts for them. Robin Williams playing the marrying priest provides the only worthwhile humor during his counseling sessions and ceremony duties.

Wedding day arrives at the homestead and it all unravels rather rapidly and the plot is as predictable as my birthday. It comes every year, but I would really rather ignore it. This movie is only an hour and a half, and I am a big fan of the shorter ones, so 90 minutes for this was plenty! Watch it at home, if...at all.

QUIET Rating system: 1 1/2 Js

Quality: J

Understood story:  JJ

Interest: J

Entertainment:  J

Time:  JJJ