The Wedding Party

Mr. De Niro's first film, credited Denero. It's his first because it was filmed in 1963 and only released in 1969. Unknown actors in the cast, except for a very young Jill Clayburgh (19 years old) who, although she doesn't have too much screen time, she is the most compelling. De Niro does not make much difference in his role, he is only present in the landscape, it could have been anyone in his place. First Feature Film directed by De Palma too. Zero stars!

Being the first feature film with Robert De Niro (although not released for years later), this is worth the watch. De Niro's role isn't huge, yet amusing as one of two friends who first try to prevent another friends marriage only to later chase him down to force him into it. Any die hard De Niro fan will get a kick out of an early performance by arguably the best actor today.

The weakest De Palma's film, as Murder a la Mod, Greetings & Hi Mum are still interesting underground movies worth seeing, not this one, clearly poor.

I enjoyed The Wedding Party for about half an hour to 45 minutes, but then it just kept going and I eventually felt a bit tired from it all. It revolves around the dynamics between people all involved with a wedding, but it's just not tight or clever enough to work as a great comedy for all of its run. It doesn't really seem all that interested in setting up memorable comedic scenarios and paying them off, and I think once I realised it wasn't really going anywhere, I kind of turned on the film.

Still, the manic energy and scrappy charm of it all sustains The Wedding Party for at least some of its runtime, but at the same time, it's a film I'd find hard to recommend to most people.

I had heard for many years that this film was pretty bad, especially considering the talent involved. Took me decades to finally get the time to see it; it just never seemed to bubble up to the top of my must-see list despite my being a huge fan of De Niro, DePalma, and Clayburgh. Well, I'm here to say don't listen to the critics: it's actually a pretty good film.

Okay, I will admit part of why it's good is that one sees it now thru the lense of the careers the principal participants had after they made this. Further, I suspect many are disappointed expecting De Niro to always be operating at 'Taxi Driver' and 'The Deet Hunter' level and Clayburgh shining as she did in 'An Unmarried Woman' and 'It's My Turn.' But the truth is that both have some very fine moments here and both are engaging despite thr fact that the gentleman who plays the groom, Charles Pfluger, seems like he would be the one to rise to stardom (he never made another movie). Jennifer Salt ('Sisters') also appears in the film, lensed the same year as she appeared in 'Midnight Cowboy' (1969).

The film, about a group of people assembling in a large house for a long weekend for a wedding, seems like it was probably too long and too boring so DePalma and company found myriad of ways of punching up the proceedings: fast motion, comic music, sound effects. But all this seems pretty effective.

The thin plot idea was better mined by Robert Altman in his film 'A Wedding' (1978), an ignored masterpiece in my book, but 'The Wedding Party' is a fun, funny and diverting if sometimes shallow and even lax night at the movies. Don't expect too much and you might be pleasantly surprised.