Hochzeit auf Umwegen

It starts out with several minutes of credits - and I'm not talking about names on top of scenic landscapes in the background, literally just white text on a black screen. But, at least the original song "Always You" was playing, which I liked. It was very obvious that the story was originally a play and was not adapted much for a screenplay of a movie. There was a lot of dialogue...I mean A LOT. And sometimes it seemed like they were talking in circles or in a translated language because I didn't even understand what they were talking about. It also felt like it didn't have enough characters and lacked a variety of scenery and settings. With such a great cast list and well-known writer/director (for TV anyways), I had higher hopes but there was much room for improvement in terms of making it into a romcom movie.

I'm not sure why they made this a movie. It's clearly a play. The monologues are play worthy, the acting is play worthy, even the blocking is stage worthy. While the acting IS stellar, it's awkward as a movie. The main cast is fantastic, and the 4 parents definitely play opposite their usual. The couple in love have very little chemistry, and her lines border on slapstick. The thing is, I don't remember any of their names because it was SO strange to watch on screen. I would love to see this written as a play script and acted on stage with the same cast. It would read so much better if it was seen live.

I had to put on subtitles for this. For a talky romantic comedy with no explosions. Christopher Nolan this is not.

Directors: pay attention to audio. At this point, we're nearly back to silent film with how badly y'all handle this stuff. Movie watchers all watched the explainer about why movie audio is so bad these days. Did movie directors? You should. I don't care if your actors want to sound more "naturalistic" with their mumbles and their whispers. They have a job to do and they are not doing it if I can't hear the words coming out of their mouths.

Apparently my review is too short until now.

How can a film with an amazing cast come off so wrong? The banter and wittiness you expect from Diane, William, Richard & Susan is strong but the script doesn't live up to what you know them to perform in.

Lots of strong dialogue they fills like it was meant for the theater and missed the mark with the space that is left in a film.

So many awkward scenes that have holes or dead moments that make you wonder what could have been done differently. The last 20 minutes has the best line's delivered by the cast.

The cast try's hard and have some really great scenes that made us laugh. Overall I don't regret watching it just wished it offered more.

The story isn't bad but the conversations are unbelievably bad. None of them flow and most of time not even believable. I can't imagine anyone one in any of the situations would behave the way every single characters does in every scene. It's like they are all awkward individuals that can't communicate or act appropriately. Maybe one person might be weird and a bad conversationalist, but everyone in the movie? It makes the whole movie hard to get into and believe. I don't think it's bad acting, although it comes off that way, because it's a good cast. I think it is the writing that ruined the whole movie. It seems lazy and not thought out at all. There isn't a single articulate conversation in the whole movie. Such a bummer because the cast is great.