Four Sisters and a Wedding

I am not an expert in pinoy flicks having watched only a handful of them. Some dramas that I loved before this were "crying ladies" and "Everything About Her"and this movie grabbed my attention as it seemed similar. I started watching this with pretty low expectations but was surprised to see how well made it was.

The poster might lead you to believe that this is a "LOL" kind of movie and will have overacted histrionics comprising the comical scenes. But that's not the case at all. This is a well thought and well acted "dramedy" that you can enjoy with anyone ranging from friends, siblings to parents.

The story revolves around 4 sisters who dote on their youngest brother CJ. Once they hear that he has decided to marry a girl he just met, they embark on a mission to stop the wedding at any cost and save their "baby brother" from yet another heartbreak.

Every single person in the cast was really delightful. They remain in their character throughout and deliver a very good and likable performance.

The film might seem like a outright comedy to some but it turned out to be something a lot more than what the poster depicts. It not only deals with the mission to stop a wedding but emotions and feelings all the sisters and their mother harbor for each other. In the beginning it seems like a picture perfect family. And although they love each other the film progresses at a great pace to show the bitter sweet relation between the sisters themselves and their mother. The movie never gets to heavy apart from one scene at the end. But that scene too, though a bit sappy, is filmed to near perfection. The dialogue was just marvelous and the final sequence had a lot to reveal in a really well scripted manner.

My advice is to not pass this as a clichéd "chick flick". This movie has lot more heart than what would one guess initially.

When my daughter wanted to watch this I said, "You mean Four Weddings and a Funeral? That's a great film!"

But alas....

I must confess that I may be the wrong audience for this movie. (I'm an older Dad).

If you have sisters or you're a mom with daughters this might be right for you: "Look! She's just like our Susan! I had that same fight once with MY sister!"

Otherwise the sisters complete hackneyed stereotypes: the overachiever, the underachiever, the stay-at-home "old maid" (kinda young and a bit offensive to be labeled an old maid, but that's how they play it...). Add in the gauche prospective in-laws, and the plot lines write themselves: this one will make up with that one; these two will eventually fall in love.... Oh yeah... and a prospective stepdaughter so annoying that even my 11-year-old daughter wanted to drown her.

In the end (no spoilers!) there is one giant scene were everyone reconciles with everyone --- a scene that possibly has no end to it. (I could have gone out for a pizza and come back and it would still be going on...) The credits claim that the film has an editor, but you couldn't prove it by me:

"I love you!"

"No; I'm the one who loves YOU!"

"I never realized!"

"And we all love Mom!"

Not funny enough to be a comedy; not dramatic enough to be a drama, not romantic enough to be a rom-com.

Hey, if you dig this who am I to complain? But next time I'll hold out for Hugh Grand and Andie MacDowell.

Where to start? It's like this movie was edited by a team of interns who got their job through nepotism and have never worked on a movie before. The audio quality is especially bad, with sound improperly mixed and no depth whatsoever. It sounds like all the actors just had a clip on microphone and whatever they said was played directly into my speakers without any thought in editing whatsoever. I've seen American movies, French movies, Korean movies, Japanese movies, Indian movies, you name it. Never have I heard such terrible sound quality. I thought this movie was dubbed over at first, that was how bad it was.

The story and plot is hacked together and frankensteined with no real payoff. Characters are unlikeable and completely off the walls and not relatable in the slightest. Adding to this is the shear number of secondary plotlines that dilute the entire movie and make it difficult to be invested in any character or relationship.

Bad. Just bad.

With brilliant writing, amazing direction and a star-studded, perfect cast, "Four Sisters and a Wedding" is a film that will never be boring even if people stream it again and again.