Daughter of the Bride

This is bad... really bad. We lasted a little over an hour, although to be honest, we did start questioning whether to turn it off after about 10 minutes. Just atrocious viewing. We thought with a couple of decent actors in it, it may have passed muster to keep us slightly entertained for a couple of hours... but we were oh so wrong. I suppose if you were a 12 year old living in a two dimensional Barbie world of vapid nonsense and you cry yourself to sleep every night in the hope that your broken family would miraculously fix itself, you might find this a little entertaining, but it's pretty unlikely. Save yourself. Watch something else... anything else.

It's hard to believe this movie actually got made. There's not an original scene in the entire film, the lead is terrible and the film is shamelessly derivative of other films. Sadly this is the type of movie that needed AI to turn into something watchable. Clearly the producers thought it was enough to have Marcia Gay Harden and Aiden Quinn to prop up this embarrassing excuse for a romantic comedy, but good actors cannot save a script with more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese, along with an awful lead actress, and unimaginative directing. I cannot believe I wasted $3.99 on this. By the way, Hallmark made a movie with the same plot years ago and it's hard to believe the writer so shamelessly copied it, made it worse, and then got it made.

It feels like this movie was made by the laziest people in the world. Awful writing, lazy and unimaginative. Definitely seen Hallmark movies with more intelligence and zest. If the producers/writers had set out to kill the career of Halston Sage with this obnoxious, neurotic, poorly written character, they were doing a really good job of it for my taste. I hope it was only the cringey, badly written character, but I fear it was not. I didn't warm to her even in the most opportune comedic moments. The only redeeming feature for her in this movie was her opposite, Andrew Richardson who gives an utterly charming, subtle and warm performance. Perfectly tuned for a RomCom. She's lucky he turned up. Harden and Quinn manage their participation as well as you'd expect these two seasoned veterans to do. While Quinn came out strongest (and most grounded) Harden occasionally gives off a slight disconnect here and there. They got lucky with their fairly straightforward arcs and played them with light touches while ignoring the gaps and leaps in the writing. It feels like it was written in a hurry and no-one bothered with a second draft.

For the past year I have watched a really funny comedy-mystery series where Marcia Gay Harden has played the driven, professional and very demanding lawyer whose adult children all have problems, particularly a son who is a real loser. Here, Harden's character has a similar personality and is quite loving but not nearly as demanding, and has no clear direction for her life. Her one child is not a loser but could be doing better with her life, and she tries too hard and annoys a daughter who is no loser but could be more successful in different ways. Harden is quite appealing but somewhat more quirky than what I am used to, but she give her usual good performance. Actually, I don't recall her other roles but I might have seen her somewhere else.

I didn't know the very pretty actress playing the confident, intelligent daughter who could be doing more. But once I saw the credits afterward I knew who she was. I saw the name Halston Sage at the start but never made the connection. For one thing, where I had seen her, she was an alien who was pretty and cute but had special makeup that made her look not quite human. She was the security head who lacked confidence and wasn't taken seriously on a "Star Trek" type series called "The Orville". Here, mostly confident and able to be taken seriously. While she might not fit some people's idea of successful, Kate seemed happy but knew she could do more, and she was also quite appealing and funny. She wore shorts a lot and in one scene had a really hard time getting out of bed.

My favorite scene, or sequence, was where Kate tried on her mom's wedding dress. She looked great in it because she had such perfect skin, while to me her mother didn't. I didn't care much for the dress either. One bride in another wedding scene had a dress I liked better. Doesn't matter. Women like these frilly dresses. Anyway, I won't give away details except to say it was really funny and I liked the music played while Kate was wearing the dress. There was music which would have fit a slapstick scene in the silent movie era, and then something that might be called Americana or bluegrass.

I've heard the name Aidan Quinn and I'm sure I've seen his work but was not really familiar with him. I won't say I liked him, but he seemed appealing enough and did a good job. Others might like him better.

I'm not familiar with the name Andrew Richardson but he was good as a quirky potential romantic partner. I won't say if his relationship goes anywhere, but the obligatory meet cute scene was done really well. The couple were good together but more like a brother and sister than a real couple.

I did say Kate was very pretty, but her man's ex, whatever her name is, was gorgeous.

Cara Santana made a good best friend.

One other actor really stood out. I'm going to have to guess because she's listed as "wedding expert" rather than dress saleswoman. Jillian Gottlieb is her name. Really funny and quirky. I use the word quirky a lot because, well, that fits the whole movie. And someone put the word under "Storyline".

One potential romantic partner for Kate liked Chuck Taylors. That's (almost) all I wear, though not high-tops and not that shade of red except for one old pair I still wear on patriotic occasions. I think Kate gave her friend a pair, but I'm not sure.

In any movie like this, I suppose there have to be tears. Yes, those who need Kleenex for "This Is Us" will need it here. There have to be problems before this movie is over. I would have preferred straight comedy. But I promise the ending won't be disappointing.

The wedding venue and a nice restaurant for one date, which may have been the same, were fabulous. The type of architecture one might expect in a building hundreds of years old in Europe.

And Bruce lives on a lake. A nice quiet contrast to the city, though it didn't seem to be a large city.

I also want to mention an attractive old bridge outside the pub that is Kate's favorite. Usually, this type design is used for railroads.

Now I did mention music. A couple of scenes had that style of music that went along with slapstick in the golden age of cinema. Most background music was good. One of the movie's final scenes had one of the few really good songs to include words. Then someone decided the mood had to change and we were back to what so much of the "music" was in this movie. Too many songs with words were just plain annoying for me, but women Kate's age like these styles. Even the music Diane liked wasn't really what I wanted. Again, I'm not in the target audience by a long shot. Straight men hate romcoms.

Is it family friendly? It was rated TV-14 and may have been cleaned up for TV. The first appearance of adult Kate is in bed naked with a man. Kate is also naked later but it's not sexual and at least on Fox, we didn't see anything. I won't say it's clean enough for the kids even though kids are in a couple of flashbacks, but it's not too bad.

I did say straight men hate romcoms. Well, I love them, and while in this day and age it ought to be easy to find and watch any movie I want, I've avoided spending extra money or dealing with doing anything online rather than on traditional cable or antenna TV. I have cable just for the broadcast channels which I can't depend on when everything is digital, and don't spend extra for channels I can watch in a motel. So I will say I've been wanting a movie like this for a long time. And I was mostly happy.

Kate (Halston Sage) is a cater waiter with no steady boyfriend. She's close to her mother Diane (Marcia Gay Harden), but she dislikes the new boyfriend Bruce (Aidan Quinn) even though she's the one who initially selected him. She almost runs over Josh (Andrew Richardson) and it's love-hate right from the start.

At first, I assumed this to be a Hallmark movie and then I noticed the veteran actors. I don't know what this is aiming for. The production is not good enough for a theatrical release, but it should be one based on the actors. The writing is derivative and wrong. I don't understand Kate's issue with Bruce. It would make more sense if she's not the one who sets them up. She could be jealous of Bruce's new relationship with her mother. That would be a fine premise and make Josh be Bruce's son. With that, the story writes itself. The wedding gown has good comedic potential and I would like to see Halston Sage try more physical comedy. This movie is all potential and no execution.