Un grand mariage

Given the premise (deduced from the trailer) and the title I was thinking of skipping 'The Big Wedding' but it's got Hollywood's finest actors like Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton and Robert de Niro. Surely, the film is at least worth a watch for their performance, right? Well, a more appropriate title for the movie would have been 'The Big Disaster In the Name of a Movie'. Yes, it's messy, silly and...not funny. 'the Big Wedding' was sold as a romantic comedy wedding flick but the 'jokes' appear forced, desperate and lack originality. Moreover it pokes fun at Catholics, free spirited people and divorced couples. The aforementioned talented actors are wasted which is a real shame. The younger cast's performance ranges from average to poor. The set and outdoor sceneries provide some nice eye-candy. Loaded with clichés, pretending to be funny and wasting talents, this expensive film is kind of...well, trash.

"The Big Wedding" seems to be following in the footsteps of the recent Hollywood romantic comedies – gather as many big name stars as you can and put them all in a romantic comedy storyline. It's the best of the bunch, even though that's not saying anything at all. It's also based on a French film "Mon frère se marie", and that's not really saying all that much either.

Any description of the plot is just going to read as a listing of who's who of Hollywood. But let's do it anyways: We have the patriarch and matriarchs (Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon); we have the up-and-comers excited for their big day (Ben Barnes and Amanda Seyfried); and then we have the middle siblings who have had their time in the spotlight and are starting to fade away (Topher Grace and Katherine Heigl).

The wedding revolves around lies (obviously) and religion - with Robin Williams as the drunken Catholic priest. And it also includes lots and lots of sex jokes. The surprising thing that audiences are taking away from this film, especially in spite of the decidedly negative critics' responses, is that it is hilarious. Fans of the film will find themselves laughing from beginning to end. But to give you fair warning, all of the jokes are sexually-based, and I mean all of them.

Laughing at the Catholic stigma of don't have sex but if you do, don't be safe; laughing at people who have too much sex; laughing at people who don't have sex; and worse of all, laughing at divorced and married couples who have sex with one another. While some of the jokes were funny, they're also responsible for creating the uneasy dynamic amongst the characters – all of whom are family (or, at least, are about to become in-laws). At times the film crosses the line from funny dysfunctional family to repulsive dysfunctional family.

The one line that "The Big Wedding" straddles well is that between comedy and drama. The film is effective when it moves from funny jokes to touching family honesty and back to some more funny jokes. The story lines are very predictable, and sometimes the jokes are too simple and too wrong, but it tries to add in the right amount of drama, and ultimately, it should be entertaining to fans of the genre.

The Big Wedding (2013)

** (out of 4)

An all-star cast does what they can for this romantic comedy but sadly it's not nearly enough. Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton play a former married couple who finds their adopted son about to be married. The only problem is that his real mother is very strict and wouldn't approve of his in-laws not being married so the two plan to pretend that they're still married, which causes trouble with the father's girlfriend (Susan Sarandon). THE BIG WEDDING features not only those three Oscar-winners but we've also got Robin Williams playing a priest and the supporting cast includes the likes of Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried and Topher Grace. With that cast it seems like we'd have something special here but that's not the case because the screenplay is just too silly, tame and boring for it to work. I love the cast and they helped keep me interested in the movie but they simply don't have anything to work with, which then begs the question as to why they agreed to be in it. The problem is that the screenplay gives us so many "stories" going on and none of them are all that interesting. You have love triangles, pregnancy issues, virgin issues, speaking issues and countless other family issues and none of them are funny. You have jokes aimed at Catholics and various sex jokes but these to are unfunny. The film tries to be somewhat raunchy but even these jokes are just too tame to work and especially in this current state of raunchy comedies. There are a few funny moments throughout and it's usually the cast member's charm that is making it. The cast members do what they can but no one here is delivering Oscar-worthy performances. Seeing DeNiro, Keaton and Sarandon acting together is fun but one really wishes the material had been better. Heigl adds nothing to the film and even Seyfried and Grace are pretty much given nothing to do but stand in the background. THE BIG WEDDING has a big cast but very little else. At best this is for fans of the cast members but even them will just want to save this for a very cheap ticket or a free rental.

This film is about the eventful wedding of a young man, when his devout Catholic biological mother turns up for the wedding.

"The Big Wedding" sounds interesting, and might even have the potential to be another "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". With the super stellar cast, I thought it could not go wrong. But it did. The characters are so poorly developed, that they appear so empty. Each of them occupy only a small amount of screen time to make viewers care about them. they are just empty vessels for hollow and unfunny jokes, and each time the jokes fall flat. The wedding may be eventful, but not theatrical or entertaining. It it's such a pity that it turned out to be a bore despite the super cast.

I don't even know where to start on how absolutely bad this movie is.

I typically only write reviews when a movie is unexpectedly great, or moving in one way or another. But I felt compelled to write a review for this movie, if nothing else than to send a message to Hollywood that viewers are actually smarter then they give us credit.

You would think with a movie that features not one, not two, not three but four or more major actors would at least be tolerable. Wrong. Did I miss something, are actors just like the rest of us, living from paycheck to paycheck, barely making end's meet? That's the only excuse that would "maybe" allow me to accept why some of these people took these roles. Or perhaps there was an old "debt" that needed to be repaid to a director or studio? There must be some excuse, because anybody with any kind of preservation for their career would have passed. Robert (De Niro), are you serious? I watched you accept a lifetime achievement award a year or two ago and you went on and on about all the crappy roles you've accepted in recent years (including "Little Fockers", which by the way is head and shoulders about this movie) - and yet here you are again. ??? Please don't tell me YOU need a paycheck too?

Bottom line: I would not be completely surprised if this movie wasn't written on the back of a bar napkin at some cheesy off the road place over the period of a couple hours. Character development is extremely shallow and inconsistent and story cohesion and development is about non-existent.

Do yourself a favor and watch something else. Anything.