Love, Wedding, Marriage

I like light romance comedies, but what I found most unlikable about this particular movie was Mandy Moore's character's very one-sided personality. She's been in too many movies where her characters have been irritating, one-sided, primadonna types. It's unfortunate given that she is so attractive. It's incredibly irritating to see a protagonist force her vision of what her parent's marriage should be. It was pounded again and again, just irritating, and there was no depth to it such as her showing a painful side as to why she needs to 'fix' things (ie some sense of childhood neglect), nor did it show her maturing into someone who wants their parents to be happy in their own way, without somebody, society, etc telling them what they 'should' be happy with. Who's to say anybody can tell another what makes them happy? Can't a couple go their separate ways for a few days or months, to discover their individual selves? I was more pleased with Jane Seymour's character to experience a life, grow, do new things, travel, etc apart from being some wife-servant. At least with Mandy Moore's character, she could have had some evolution in her efforts (not just that last second fake pill overdose shenanigan to manipulate her parents), to be more altruistic instead of dominating/manipulating.

The conflict with the husband regarding the manipulation was well played. Mandy's character manipulates a fake life-and-death situation to deceive his mother into not wanting to be on her own for 6 months out of her life for once. Mandy's husband called her out on this blatant manipulation and I felt that was the most honest part of the movie, how shallow, selfish the manipulation was, to judge for other people what 'should' make them happy, that it involves some stereotype instead of personal discovery/independence. The resolution of the conflict came out of nowhere. The dialogue started with Mandy's character trying to apologize, but was interrupted, as if an apology or personal change/growth was completely unnecessary. The things the husband wanted from the wife (to accept, in him) was actually nothing to do with why he was angry in the first place. She gets interrupted from her apology, he asks to be accepted, they kiss, end credits. She never got the chance to apologize and so that almost says that it was unnecessary, superficial. Messages like that are dangerous. Even with the movie being a comedy.

I found Mandy's character overall annoying/irritating and given that she felt no remorse for manipulating her parents, that she had no soul. I don't think it was Ms. Moore's fault, as that has more to do with the script and directing, hinting at emotion, providing pause, reflection, etc that the director simply did not provide. These romantic comedies that have such absurd conflict only to end in even more absurd resolution are ultimately dangerous stories of fantasy that even a lighthearted audience should not see. It only can give terrible impressions in a relationship, bad example, and make relationships more painful and illusive. At least a comedy could teach the viewers something. There was no lesson of compromise, of heart-felt communication, of acceptance, of change, of growth, etc - the conflict was sudden and the resolution was even more sudden.

Normally I don't mind watching rom-coms multiple times, but i don't think this is enjoyable to watch again. The characters were too irritating to enjoy. It reminds me of the irritation I felt with another Mandy Moore movie, License to Wed, where the conflict felt so incredibly contrived/out-of-nowhere and the helplessness of the characters (to augment the ridiculous conflict) just made it really annoying. I actually liked her better in Swinging With The Finkels, even though in that movie I found the shallow, apathetic and loyalty-less husband quite irritating.

This film has some of the most outrageous characters. I understand trying to be funny, but some of these people, like the fitness lady, the shrink, the Polish girlfriend and even the mom were just too ridiculous. There was talk about sex in a very awkward (makes you cringe kind of ) way. Mandy's character was too shallow and blind.

I could go on. There really wasn't even one scene where I smiled or connected with, and that's difficult, considering that I LOVE romance and chick flicks.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one, unless you really enjoy irrational, crazy, thinking they are so funny, characters.

This movie is hard to rate as there are good components within a movies structure however ultimately a film's aim called "Love, Wedding, Marriage" should be to help people in society to learn to do the right things in their relationships, however this movie rewards all the terrible decisions that would fail in real life.

For the reason above I would seriously NOT recommend this movie to others.

Now the story has cohesion & the script is acted out well but the main actress Mandy Moore's character Ava is not only the world's worst marriage counsellor but quite simply the character Ava makes terrible decisions & is rewarded for making them ( in real life these decisions would have made everything worse ). This is not a romantic comedy you could learn from, in fact it would encourage people to be totally irresponsible in the hope things would just work out still. What kind of message is this to give out but being totally irresponsible writing.

Now I usually love Mandy Moore's characters in other movies & TV shows as she usually plays someone kind, considerate, empathetic but with some reality in her characters that will have believable flaws but ultimately she has a good heart. Now in this movie her character is a complete childish idiot who apparently has a degree in psychology from a very prodigious college ( don't mention the college as in real life they would be ashamed of this character Ava ) so to have her mess up so bad OK we could put up with but then to reward some terrible behaviour in the movie is disgraceful & disgusting, as the movie should have shown how she messed everything up but then when she finally allowed things to be done by an independent therapist over some time an amicable agreement within the family could have been found from a foundation of honesty all real relationships need.

At the end of the movie are any of the characters really better off you have to ask & the answer has to be a resounding NO they are worse off & all their problems are still there as all their underlying issues have not really been addressed at all.

So the acting was OK ( as actors did as they were told ) so they lose a star ( -1 ) because Kellan Lutz's acting is not really up to par especially ( though ironically his character in the movie is actually overall a decent human being ), then the storyline not being realistic loses just another star ( -1 ) making this in terms of production value & direction an 8 out of 10 movie, however we then have to be responsible in our rating I believe & state the "message" in the movie of keep doing awful terrible things & everything will work out at the end of the movie is a really dreadful message as I would not my daughter thinking this was in any way educational like you normally get from an actual "good message" rom com.

So this takes the movie from a must see "8 star" to a must avoid "4 star" as anything 5 or below simply should not be worth the effort to watch it at all.

If they had made a sequel to this movie & actually laid out this movies story first to any real life marriage psychologist I think they would have had to point out how every couple in this movie would most likely end up heart broken & alone.

Unless of course they actually recognised the dreadful mistakes they had made & actually started all acting like decent human beings & started being really honest with themselves & their partners plus family. As only then could this movie have any kind of redemption as the ending of this first movie really is not a good plot point if you actually want to be helping real people find real life marriage help.

When you are telling a story like this you have to ask yourself what are the morals to the tale, as the answer is actually it is mostly immoral then why put that out there ( all that negativity ) as you could literally encourage someone to ruin their life or others lives because they are misguided enough to believe in your fantasy.

Four motives, in my case, for see this romcom : the name of director, Jane Seymour, James Brolin and Mandy Moore. And, sure, not less, a Kellan Lutz more attractive for his body than for his acting.

In essence, a serious fist of cliches ( not exactly a surprise ), jokes for film team ( not exactly for audience ), unrealist in full spoon style, not so pleasant stereotypes about Eastern young ladies and sexual references as blink to part of viewers.

In fact, a film about nothing ( except, maybe, the idealisation of parents and their relatin ) . But enough for a very easy comedy and for admirers of actors.

When I found this film I knew what I was in for. A formulaic romantic comedy that should entertain all of the romantics out there. Although there is not originality there is a certain charm about the film that tops up a lot romantic comedies out there. This is not a film for a film buff to get something out off right when he leaves the theater. This is a film to enjoy while it lasts, and enjoy the beautiful people in this film. This is not a film that will define the way we make films. This is just pure entertainment. So if you go into this film with the exact mind set you will enjoy it like I did. But if you go into this film looking for career changing acting and an original plot then do not watch this film for it is only pure entertainment.