License to Wed - Review

Anyone who has gotten married is more than familiar with the stress that comes with the shift from being just a couple to being a married couple. Over years you discover differences of opinion on all sorts of things you never had any idea you would disagree with your spouse on: political differences, how many kids you want to have, those sorts of mundane details that just happen to come up over time. License to Wed takes those kinds of differences and has one couple face all of them over a period of days and weeks, all courtesy of a special “marriage preparation course”.

The course is conducted by the irreverent Reverend Frank, played by a slightly less energetic than usual Robin Williams. Many people told me, after seeing the trailers for License to Wed, that it looked like more of Williams doing his usual spurts of stand-up comedy. This is only partially true. While Reverend Frank does have a couple of comedic eruptions, they are kept to a minimum. One gets the sense that Williams probably didn’t control himself any more than usual on the set of this film, but the editors just kept it out of the movie. The story pairs Frank with a cute little apprentice character to give Williams someone to play off of, but it doesn’t work, particularly because the kid is too young for Williams to have too much fun with. Instead the choir boy gives off a bit of a creepy Oompa-Loompa vibe, especially when he’s stalking the designated couple and planting listening devices. By the end I was hoping someone would stuff the kid in a storage chest, never to be seen from again.

The primary humor comes from the trials of Ben (John Krasinski) and Sadie (Mandy Moore), the couple who comes to Reverend Frank for their wedding. At first a perfect couple who has never had a single fight, the duo discover their own shortcomings as they endure Frank’s marriage course. Of course, many of the couple’s problems are apparent from the start. Sadie is a big organizer and wants everything laid out in its place while Ben frequently doesn’t get his way, conceding to make his girlfriend happy. Those aren’t the problems the movie’s story really tackles however, as the marriage course pits the couple against problems most couples learn to deal with over time – communication, the rigors of having children, etc. It’s mostly manufactured problems, compressed down to a time span that creates added pressure for the characters, crumbling their relationship. One has to wonder how long the characters will put up with this, but “for the sake of the marriage” they keep at it… or that’s why Sadie puts up with it. Ben puts up with it for Sadie, and that right there shows the biggest problem the two have. Alas, it’s a problem that’s never really addressed.

Let’s be clear: this is a romantic comedy and, if there’s anything I’ve learned from romantic comedy stories over time, it’s to not expect anything bearing any similarity to reality. That’s why plot devices such as having to choose between holding a wedding three weeks away or two years away don’t even faze me anymore. A couple accepting to put up with creepy robot babies that spit up and poop as part of the marriage preparation program? Sure, why not. Ben finally getting so fed up with the program that he starts to try and dig up dirt on the minister instead of talking things over with his girlfriend? Bring it on. There is humor here, but very little of it has much to do with the actual storyline; garnering laughter from moments like Williams’s banter and Ben’s reactions to things that really are irrelevant and unbelievable. The truth is, License to Wed rivals other silly comedies like Anger Management in ludicrousness. It’s clearly a fluff movie; quite possibly the king of fluff movies in recent years. You can check your brain at the door, because the movie just tries to play on your sappy emotions with some chuckles thrown in.

The big draw for License to Wed is John Krasinski, who’s really made a name for himself as Jim in the American version of “The Office”. Director Ken Kwapis is also an “Office” alum (director for a number of episodes) and clearly wants you to remember the television series as a selling point for this movie, so the film is stuffed with cameo appearances from most of the secondary cast of the show. An appearance from Steve Carell or Rainn Wilson might have gone farther than the less memorable members of the ensemble, but you work with what you can get, I suppose. For those who want to see this cute romantic comedy because of Krasinski’s affable “Office” character, fear not. This movie is essentially an hour and a half of that same performance, minus the not-so-subtle glances at the camera. For those who don’t like Jim Halpert or don’t know “The Office”, there’s really nothing lost by missing this movie in theaters. It’s the kind of cute little comedy you might leave on the television if it happens to be on, but there’s no need to go out of your way to catch it.

Because I Said So - Review

There are probably hundreds of different ways people define a chick-flick, but I’ve discovered a movie that I would use as a new standard to which all such movies should be compared. Overbearing mothers…supportive sisters…worthless, runaway fathers... excessive furniture moving... an irrational need to have a phone conversation in the middle of a date... chocolate soufflé... it has everything I imagine such a movie would need and then some. The problem is that cramming all those chick-flick elements into a single film has pushed out a lot of the stuff that helps make a movie enjoyable to watch.

Daphne Wilder (Diane Keaton) is the kind of doting, interfering, emotionally addicted woman who would have crafted the ultimate momma’s boy. However, as fate would have it, she only produced three daughters before her husband fled the scene. The older daughters, level headed psychiatrist Maggie (Laura Graham) and fun loving Mae (Piper Perabo) both managed to find their perfect man and wind up happily married. The youngest, Milly (Mandy Moore), hasn’t had such good fortune, unwittingly stumbling into one deadbeat heartbreaker after another. Daphne is bound and determined to find the man she thinks would be best for Milly, even if it means taking out a personal ad and screening each individual applicant herself.

The manhunt turns up copious candidates, but only one passes muster: Jason (Tom Everett Scott), the financially successful but essentially soulless architect. Daphne makes the match, but much to her dismay Milly falls for another guy at the exact same time, the sweet, free spirited single father, Johnny (Gabriel Macht). Milly is pinned to both men, on the one side by her heart and on the other side by her mother. Both guys are painfully stereotypical, but that seems to be intentional. Heaven forbid anything take the spotlight off of the ladies.

Once the scene is set the movie wallows around in one-dimensional character interactions occasionally interrupted by over-the-top physical gags. For example, in one scene Daphne and her daughters discuss their underwear preferences and Milly’s man problems while changing clothes before heading into a spa. Moments later a Korean masseuse jumps up on Daphne’s back and, despite her flailing protestations, begins bending her like a pretzel in an effort to get her to loosen up.

Don’t even get me started on Daphne’s bad fortune of twice having her daughters call her on the phone just after her computer gets stuck on a porn site while she’s trying to find an online matchmaking service. And then there’s the fact that the family can’t make it through a wedding without someone sneaking off to have sex or the way in which the women all seem to relate to each other by exchanging pastries. The movie might just as well have been called Life As A Cake.

About two-thirds of the way through, Because I Said So takes a bizarre twist when Daphne has an all too convenient encounter with Johnny’s father, Joe (Stephen Collins). Swept off her feet, Daphne finally finds someone who can help her realize the error of her interfering ways. While cute in a “you can find love later in life” sort of way, it has the creepy side effect of making Milly and Johnny step-brother and sister. Of course, that doesn’t stand in their way. This is a chick-flick, and the ending is just as predictable as you’d expect.

For all the movie’s failings, you can’t fault the cast. The actors all have the ability to play the roles, but there’s little they can do to overcome the triteness of the script. Diane Keaton, who has made these sorts of extreme matriarchal roles a staple of her career, tries her best to breathe life into the flatly written Daphne. Mandy Moore proves yet again that she has the chops to play a solid leading character even if she can’t get through the movie without a musical number or two. Stephen Collins and Gabriel Macht are the perfect sensitive male father/son team, knowing how to tame their women’s wild hearts while not being afraid to get a little teary eyed in front of them. .

Too silly to be a romantic comedy, Because I Said So is a full blown comic estrogen-fest that gets so caught up in trying to be funny while identifying with the hazards of female familial interpersonal relationships that it almost forgets other important little details like plot and character development. Moment to moment the comedic bits and semi-dramatic scenes work well enough, but strung together into a single film they end up as a flimsy, pseudo-emotional mess.