My Wife's Relations

In the world where people misunderstand each other perfectly Buster Keaton is accidentally wedded with intimidating woman (Kate Price) with even more intimidating brothers. Buster is not very welcome in the family and he gets bullied around until one of the brothers finds an envelope in the Buster's pocket. Inside the envelope is a letter that declares that he has inherited $100.000. Suddenly all the family starts to take care of Buster - they treat him good (well, almost) and they rent an expensive mansion. Then they discover that the letter wasn't for Buster, and all hell breaks loose.

The film has some quite funny and clever moments, but they are just moments. Like usually in the Buster Keaton's movies, this time the story doesn't go nowhere and random stunts (as magnificent as they are) are just random stunts in random order. Seems bit wasted opportunity, considering the talents of Buster Keaton. Still, it is fun and entertaining enough to spend your 25 minutes.

A broken glass, a vigilent lady, a Polish judge of peace , the marriage and a too large family, promissing letter and ...the truth. One of nice short films, not memorable but nice. Few seductive gags. And a powerful moral. So, just Buster Keaton and his universe.

Really love Buster Keaton, he was incredibly funny, very daring and was also one of the few in film history to make deadpan work. Love many of his feature films, with 'The General' especially being a masterwork, and most of his independent short films too ('The Scarecrow' and 'One Week' being my favourites). Not all of them though, as a few did suffer from not being particularly inspired or disjointed and cobbled together stories, such as 'Balloonatics' and 'The Frozen North'.

'My Wife's Relations' is not one of Keaton's best either, while putting it above those two only just. As far as his short films go, while above average and worth watching it is one of his lesser ones. A lot to like, but doesn't do enough with a great idea and Keaton did funnier and more imaginative work before and since. 'My Wife's Relations' is worth watching if wanting to see as much of Keaton's work and silent comedy in general, but it's not one of the essential.

There are plenty of good things. Keaton is without complaint, he has great comic timing, he shows off his fearlessness whenever he is able to and he is endearing (keep saying a lot about his near-unparallelled mastery of deadpan, but it is always impressive when something you don't usually care for is done well). His character is a likeable one in an on paper relatable predicament. Kate Price is very convincing as a formidable battleaxe of a character and Keaton regular Joe Roberts plays to his strengths very well.

It looks good with nicely framed photography throughout. There are amusing moments, especially in the second half where Keaton's bold physical comedy shines in the climax. The dinner scene has some very funny little touches and wedding nights don't often get more chaotic or hellish than the one in 'My Wife's Relations'

However, 'My Wife's Relations' did feel a bit inconsistent in the pace and laughs so it made it hard for me to fully connect with it. It does have slow spots before properly coming to life in the climactic moments and there could have been more laughs, or at least ones that felt more consistently natural than those here.

Also felt that the thin and at times contrived story brought things down as well as going well overboard on the unlikeability factor for most of the characters. While Keaton, Price and Roberts are good, the others seemed to be over-compensating.

Summing up, above average but not exceptional. 6/10

Buster winds up married to a harridan and finds himself sharing a house with her, her surly father and four brutish brothers. They treat him abominably until they begin to think he might be well-off ... Made a year after Buster had got married and was single-handedly supporting his wife's large family, this is one of his more auto-biographical shorts, and feels rather bitter. Some very funny scenes, but not one of the genius' best.

The sudden and mistaken marriage of Keaton to an unlikely bride is the incident that forms the basis for the plot. Confronted by animalistic in-laws, who would be any groom's nightmare, Keaton maneuvers through their opportunism and materialism. Somehow the pieces don't quite fit together. There are episodes that are almost very funny, but not quite. Perhaps grounded too deeply to contemporary reality, I'm never able to accept the premise that Keaton would acquiesce to this marriage without any form of challenge. Perhaps that direction in plot would have produced a greater opportunity for Keaton's brand of comedy to shine.