Quase Casadas

Good acting, good cinematography, and good direction cannot save a boring screen play. During the first 85 minutes I wondered to myself several times whether it was worth it to continue watching. The only thing that kept me from turning off the TV was a made-up game I created, where I tried to guess the outcome.

I did enjoy the interactions between the three almost married couples, and the interactions between the three girl friends.

The three things that most detracted from the story were: 1) The dog. 2) The mother-in-law. 3) The ex-girlfriend. As written, these three characters were over-the-top to the point of being painful.

Three newly married women discover they are not actually married in this 2013 Hallmark Channel movie.

The same gimmick was used in a minor comedy in 1952, WE'RE NOT MARRIED and its appearance here is also a gimmick, permitting the makers to hold the sanctity of marriage at risk without using the ugly word "Divorce". The point here is laid out in the prologue: do you want a marriage or just a wedding? Although the focus is on the women, the serious point underlying this movie is that couples must talk and reach agreement.

Although the situations are sitcom material -- one has an evil mother in law, another has her old high school tormentor and ex-girlfriend of her husband working for him and the third has gotten a dog and he wants a baby -- all the actors are good looking and very competent. I wouldn't go looking for this one, but if you find yourself looking at it, you should stick until the end.

Good movie. great cast yes it is well worth the watch. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 1/10/2021

The movie portrays the important lesson that a wedding isn't a happy ending. It's just the start of a new journey, one that takes daily effort from both spouses. After the weddings and honeymoons, the three marriages run into trouble. It's mostly the husbands' fault. One husband takes his wife for granted, and becomes emotionally neglectful, heightening her sense of paranoia when his high school sweetheart becomes his secretary. Another husband hasn't learned to tell his manipulative, overbearing mother "No." And the third husband doesn't get on the same page as his wife regarding what she wants out of life. When it is discovered that the minister died before signing their marriage licenses, the relationships are made more fragile by the easy way out. All three girls are likable. They are kind people, and they're good friends who support each other. They deserve better than how their husbands, and the one mother-in-law, treat them. But the plotline comes to a satisfying conclusion, and I think all three girls make the right choice.

This Hallmark movie had no characters worth rooting for. All 3 of the husbands were class "A" stupid jerks. All of their better halves could have done so much better considering their beauty, overall niceness, and successful careers. But they still settled for their men with one (thank-God) exception with a minimum of grovelling on their part. Naomi Judd (why do women who aspire to be actresses freeze their faces?) is a truly evil pervert and her husband, oops, son, is so in her thrall and so weak and naive that words fail. She literally almost murders her daughter-in-law, a doctor, by the way, and all is forgiven after a not very believable apology. The solution to their little problem is that the couple pay her to move out of the house she should not have been in to begin with. Stupid girl #2 makes a fool out of herself longing for and stalking a husband who hires as his secretary his ex-high school sweetheart, "his first love," he tells her, who tortured and bullied his new (very cute) wife when they were teenagers. And he has the gall to leave her when she dares to call him on it. Our heroine #3, actually does not take her psychotically controlling male chauvinist future wife abuser back, even though he begs her (quite satisfyingly). She would have been OK had it not been for her devotion to her very irritating dog, causing a modicum of sympathy for the husband. It is hard to enjoy a movie when 5 out of 6 protagonists is worthy of nothing but contempt.