The Big Wedding

2013 "It's never too late to start acting like a family."
5.6| 1h30m| R| en| More Info
Released: 25 April 2013 Released
Producted By: Millennium Media
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

To the amusement of their adult children and friends, long-divorced couple Don and Ellie Griffin are forced to play the happy couple for the sake of their adopted son's wedding after his ultra conservative Catholic biological mother unexpectedly decides to fly halfway across the world to attend. With all of the wedding guests looking on, the Griffins are hilariously forced to confront their past, present and future - and hopefully avoid killing each other in the process.

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Reviews

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
Micitype Pretty Good
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Dunham16 A remake of a Swiss art film the plot is too familiar as often recycled for repetitive Hollywood ensemble comedy. Familiar names from Diane Keaton and Robert di Niro to Susan Sarandon and Topher Grace to Katherina Heigl and Robin Williams to Christine Ebersole and Amanda Seyfried display glorious comic emotion and elegant tight ensemble work in a story which outlandishly simulates the heavy emotive baggage those invited to a formal wedding ceremony choose to hide from or fling at each other. Even the public television recurring series DOWNTOWN ABBEY highlighted an episode with this plot line in the United States this spring and this one was much more tastefully done. The running time of this film seems the shortest of the multiple Hollywood films on the parallel premise suggesting the name stars could not mutually block in enough shooting time or the director could not come up with enough ongoing plot complications or whatever to keep the story going for at least an hour and three quarters. Considering some of the episodes not in fact suitable for a family rating the film does have merit for those interested in what is has to offer but lacks universal appeal.
tieman64 Like Robert Altman's "A Wedding", Justin Zackham's "The Big Wedding" attempts to clash the "conservative" values and traditions oft associated with weddings, family, marriage and love, with more irreverent (or "ultra liberal") social mores. In this regard, the film watches as a family attempts to disguise the adultery, incest, homosexuality, promiscuity, polygamy, swearing, alcoholism and atheism which runs rampant in the home of their divorced parents. They do not disapprove of this behaviour, but simply do not wish to offend the puritanical mother of their visiting daughter-in-law.At its best, "The Big Wedding" normalizes behaviour which most uncritically condemn, and portrays sexual infidelity as something that should be talked about, forgiven and even celebrated. At its worst, though, this is an unfunny, crude, witless and poorly written film. The always watchable Susan Sarandon elevates things somewhat. Featuring lazy performances by Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton.6/10 - Worth one viewing.
viewsonfilm.com As I sat in the theater a few months ago, I saw a trailer for what I believe to be a fun Spring release with a big name cast (heck, two of them were in The Godfather Part II). Added to that, I guess wedding season is coming up (I'm not married but I did look it up) so I figured this film was being put in theaters at just the right time. Now that I have viewed what is a true exercise in scatterbrain utopia, I'm realizing all along that a bunch of stars involved in any type of movie, or should I say, in any type of movie genre, doesn't guarantee greatness. Granted, I was entertained by little snippets here and there, but I thought to myself, am I watching a movie or am I just viewing dailies. I couldn't really tell ya to be honest. With this major gray area fluttering through my brain, I did however become enamored by the plot (or idea of a plot). It seemed original and sort of refreshing (so many films about weddings seem so arbitrary). It goes like this: Don Griffin (played emphatically by Robert De Niro) has an adopted son who plans on getting married in the next couple of days. His adopted son Alejandro (Ben Barnes), brings his biological mother all the way from Columbia to attend his wedding. Added to that, his biological mother believes that marriage is sacred and that no one should ever ever get divorced. This forces De Niro's character to pretend to be married to his ex-wife (Ellie Griffin played by Diane Keaton) for the remainder of the weekend in which the wedding occurs. So you see, there is a storyline here. It's too bad that the execution is so darn sloppy.So not to be confused with one of Robert De Niro's earliest films, The Wedding Party (1969), I am reviewing The Big Wedding which is not so much of a movie as it is a bunch of individual scenes crammed together inside all of 89 minutes. There are some funny moments and Bob's character is a riot (he plays the ultimate ladies man/lousy ex-husband and father), but along with him, there are far too many other subplots and adult situations to keep up with. What's worse, the film jumps back and forth in no particular order to established these subplots and throw at the audience, the chaos everyone is going through. This all happens all in the course of maybe a day or two. And it all happens at, you guessed it, a wedding and the pre-wedding festivities.What we have here with this blatant misfire, is that it's the type of vehicle that feels like it starts in the middle. Some movies do a somewhat of an effective job at portraying this. Common movie going knowledge says you have to figure out what has already happened in your imagination and try to keep up with the continuum of what is already going on. The Big Wedding sadly, is not one of those types of movies. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why certain characters were mad at each other or resented each other (if you want to know what I'm talking about, pay attention to Katherine Heigl's character, Lyla Griffin). Also, I got annoyed by a lot of scenes where the whole cast were feverishly trading dialogue with one another. It felt like they didn't talk to each other (or look each other in the eye) but kinda talked just to be heard. Or better yet, the banter between them in most scenes gave me the feeling that they were literally caught in a different movie all together. There were a couple of examples of this but mainly, you have to watch the sequence where the whole family is having lunch on the patio of their big Connecticut house. It almost looked like everyone's speaking parts were filmed individually. For the sake of all the crew who probably worked very hard on The Big Wedding, I'll just admit that I might be exaggerating.All things considered, The Big Wedding has a couple of amusing moments (I can't get the image out of my head of De Niro lighting up and smoking two cigarettes at once) and it's an hour and a half of mindless fun. It's probably worth a poultry 5-7 bucks for a matinée showing. But really, if you go into the theater thinking you're watching an actual movie, then you're in for a "big" disappointment.
dragora116 I gave the movie a six, not because it's a better than average movie (if not by much), but because if you ignore all the clumsy, cheap, and crude attempts at comedy, it's actually a pretty sweet story and quite romantic. About twenty minutes into the movie, I thought to myself, "I bet the director also wrote the screenplay." And as the end credits started, boom, there it was: directed by, screenplay by. Granted, it is adapted from a French movie. But along with directors directing their own screenplays, English adaptations of French comedies are my biggest pet peeves. The comedy just does not translate; watch the original with subtitles. Please. And the list is endless: Jungle to Jungle, The Birdcage, Dinner for Schmucks, True Lies, Mixed Nuts, and more. Some may even end up being blockbusters, but it's like reading the 8th sheet under the carbon paper*, it's a very pale replica and you can barely make out the comedy, or the charm.* For those who do not know what carbon paper is, it's a pre-historic method of making copies. Google it.What I enjoyed about the movie is the following: the romance, the sweetness, the touching moments. There was an abundance, but ruined by a heavy, clumsy punch line every time.. I wish that one person had read the adapted screenplay and had mentioned that it wash't funny, at all.The actors also made it easy to watch. All veterans, even the younger cast, they were each able to give heart to their characters. Beautifully acted. So if you are one of those people who can separate the two, enjoy the storyline and ignore the comedy. Good luck to ya!