2.5 stars. Rating: R, for profanity, sexual candor and brief nudity
By Derrick Bang
Hollywood never learns.
American filmmakers simply can’t
remake French comedies, much less French sex comedies. The results are almost
always stiff and awkward, the actors rarely comfortable with dialogue and
ribald situations that just come naturally to our cousins across the pond.
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| Ellie and Don (Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro, right), although divorced for years, agree to fake being married, in order not to offend the deeply conservative Madonna (Patricia Rae, center left) and her deceptively demure daughter, Nuria (Ana Ayora). The thing is, Nuria isn't as chaste as her appearance would suggest, and Ellie and Don aren't as "over" each other as they'd like to believe. One would expect hilarity from such a premise. One would be mistaken. |
We Americans simply ain’t got the
necessary je ne sais quoi.
That’s certainly the case with The Big Wedding, which boasts a great cast
that is all dressed up, with nowhere to go. Director Justin Zackham’s script is
clumsy and under-developed, his characters behaving in ways that are
insufficiently justified by woefully thin motivations. Indeed, at 90 minutes,
this film feels like a savagely edited “dump job” that Lionsgate chopped up and
released in the (probably vain) hope of getting at least one good weekend’s
box-office take.
Zackham adapted his film from
Jean-Stéphane Bron’s 2006 comedy, Mon
frère se marie, which in turn borrows several plot elements from 1978’s
classic La cage aux folles.
Escalating sexual hijinks revolve around the wedding of a young couple, whose
respective families are mismatched: one conservative and demure, the other
ultra-liberal and sexually liberated.
In order not to offend the former
group, the latter attempt to clean up their act. Sort of. With less than
optimal results.
Cue considerable hilarity.
Or that was the plan, anyway, but
Zackham too frequently stalls at the comedy gate. Yes, some moments are funny;
yes, others are poignant and sweet. But far too many scenes emerge as missed
opportunities, thanks in part to a sniggering, frat-boy attitude to the sexual
humor: no surprise, since Zackham’s only previous feature credit is 2001’s
sex-crazed frat-boy bomb, Going Greek.
Indeed, I can’t imagine why he
was entrusted with this assignment. Because he also wrote 2007’s tear-jerking The Bucket List? That certainly didn’t
qualify him to direct the likes of Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Susan
Sarandon ... and, based on the results, he definitely wasn’t ready for the
major league.
