Polish Wedding

Polish Wedding was a film that was not quite popular, but I wanted to see it to make my own assumptions. Sadly I was quite disappointed in most aspects of this film. The story is supposed to be about a blue -collar Polish family in Detroit whose members are all struggling with their love and hatred for each other. The mother played by Lena Olin, is self obsessed - caring only for her control of her children and love affair. The father is a tired baker, who sees the holes in his family but is reluctant to face them. Claire Danes plays their 'free spirit' of a daughter, who wanders alleyways at night with strange boys and ends up pregnant. The film technique and art direction is a contrasting mix of urban ugliness and natural beauty. There are some notably beautiful scenes for which I must give some credit. Aside from this one point of merit, the rest of the film falls short of what I expected. First of all, the characters are really unrealistic. Being part Polish, I found the accents to be contrived and the whole feel of the family to be unfamiliar. The characters were interesting at first, but due to lack of development, become increasingly boring as time goes on. I tried, with great effort, to see where the title becomes relevant in this film, but there is no hint of a wedding in this film - Dane's character just waltzes to the boys house in a wedding gown - actually convinced she will get married ???? I think this film might have been a real jewel if the story had moved a little more quickly and if the characters had not been so flat and un-dynamic. Anyone with a hint of Polish in their blood might even find this film more offensive that self-relevant. It casts a bad picture onto a people with a far more interesting family tradition than is seen in this artificial construction.

When is this movie supposed to have taken place? I live in Detroit (or, ok, a suburb thereof) and this movie is definitely confused. First of all, Lena Olin wears a uniform for some meeting that looks like its from the 40's. The police car looks like its from the 70's. Gabriel Byrne's character acts like he's from the 50's and Clair Danes' promiscuous character is definitely suited to the 90's, with 80's hair.

The film was actually shot in a suburb quite a ways from Detroit that is known for having a large Polish community. That's about the only polish influence in the movie. Everything else is just horniness run amuck.

A horrible,pointless film in which the actors are way too good for the script, I was not surprised to see that the writer/director has done nothing else since. Let's hope her urge to create remains dormant and spares us another two-hours-of-my-life-that-i'll-never-get-back feeling.

What the????

Why are these characters supposed to be Polish, and why does the story take place in the present? It seems to be located somewhere in the 50's or 60's in terms of its attitudes and characters. It seems to be located far from urban America in terms of the wacky behavior of its characters. I can't relate to it in any way.

Lena Olin gets my award for the worst accent in the history of film. What was she thinking of? You know, Lena, the reason Meryl Streep gets all those accents right is not just because she's talented (though she is), but because she studies every word, every nuance of the rhythm. What were you thinking of with those rolling Hungarian r's and those throat-clearing Yiddish "ch" sounds.

Why didn't they just make this a family of Potsylvanians living in Crovenia in some dimly-remembered post-war era, and none of this would have bothered me.

As for Gabriel Byrne, this usually talented actor obviously decided not to bother with the accent or the whole damned movie for that matter, and he called in his part. He obviously realized this was no Sophie's Choice, and he just collected his paycheck. In some scenes he used a heavy accent, sometimes a lighter one, sometimes none at all ... one of those Kevin Costner things. On the other hand, Byrne's relationship with his daughter (a capable Claire Danes) was the best part of the movie, although that isn't saying much.

I could only find one hint that the characters were actually Polish ... I think they mentioned Pierogi once.

Forget this turkey. It has a few good moments, but they aren't worth the effort.

If 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' was 'Everybody Loves Raymond', then this was 'Married ... with Children'. In the Greek family, the bride was plain and overweight but made herself over, hoping to get a man before her biological clock ran out. In this movie, the bride looked hot even with a minimum of makeup ... though her mom looked like Kathie Lee Gifford and wore enough makeup for a much older profession than cleaning offices. The Greek family ran a restaurant. In this movie, the father worked nights in a bakery but it is never made clear whether he owned it. The Greek wedding was a major production involving hundreds of guests. The Polish wedding ... wasn't. I don't want to give away too much, but weapons were involved. I think they were baseball bats, but I'm not sure. The scene where those were used--that was memorable. I liked the performances of the actors playing the groom's parents, brief though they were.

Claire Danes did a wonderful job as the only daughter out of five children. She showed a real talent for sultry behavior, and her evil laugh early in the movie was something worth seeing. Lena Olin delivered an outstanding performance, effectively showing a wide variety of emotions, and her accent was beautiful. Gabriel Byrne had his moments as the father.

I had a hard time enjoying the movie, though, except when it was funny. Some of the humor was naughty, but that was okay. It seemed well done. The main problem with the movie was that there were good parts but nothing overall that made them fit together as a whole.

It was fun at times, anyway.

I suppose, a comedy. And few nice intentions. And good actors. And that is all. The basic sin, it can be, in extremis , a portrait of an Italian family. But not a Polish one. The cliches are awful and ridiculous. For each Polish person, it represents an injury. Sure, good intentions and few not so bad scenes. But not enough for be more than a bad parody. The regret - a so cast deserves a better script.