The worst part about “The Big Wedding” is neither its utterly inane plot not its flat attempts at humor. It’s that no one cared enough to take a talented cast and a reasonably interesting idea and turn it into anything better that this complete waste of an hour and a half of viewers’ time.
The premise itself is relatively unimaginative, though not entirely uninteresting, romantic comedy fare. A divorced couple, Ellie (Diane Keaton) and Don Griffin (Robert De Niro), must pretend to be married during their adopted son Alejandro’s (Ben Barnes) wedding, since he has yet to tell his strictly Catholic Colombian birth mother Madonna (Patricia Rae) about his adoptive parents’ divorce. Supposedly funny situations ensue, particularly between Madonna and Don’s girlfriend, Bebe (Susan Sarandon), and various subplots involving the other Griffin children, Lyla (Katherine Heigl) and Jared (Topher Grace) are also woven in as the movie struggles towards its predictable conclusion.
What makes this film so unwatchable is its utter lack of humor. From the projectile vomiting to the inept jokes about race, there were exactly three times during the entire movie in which anyone in the theater actually laughed. And yet, it gets worse. A relatively raunchy film that more than earns its R rating, the movie is thoroughly incapable of moving beyond the crudest, most basic sexual humor, resulting in a cringe-worthy film that makes you wonder why anyone decided to waste money on creating this movie. The film’s attempts at jokes about race, particularly the supposedly humorous racism of Alejandro’s Irish Catholic future in-laws, are pathetic at best and add absolutely nothing to the movie.
Throughout the film, there’s a sense that neither the cast nor crew felt any motivation to create a movie that was more than passable at best. In addition to the total indifference toward trying to write an even moderately humorous script, the casting was also truly shameful. Choosing Ben Barnes, a Caucasian actor to play the role of Alejandro, a Colombian character, and then spray tanning Barnes an unnatural shade of orange in a weak attempt to fool the audience exposes the underlying flaw in the film, that no one cared enough to turn it into anything more than a waste of viewers’ time.
The movie’s talented cast, however, helps save it from being a total failure. Despite the lackluster material, De Niro and Keaton still maintain a believable, fairly entertaining banter, portraying the love/hate relationship of a divorced couple well. The relationship between Heigl and Grace is similarly engaging, and one of the only funny parts of the movie. Most performances, however, are truly awful, especially Father Moinighan’s (Robin Williams) role as an irreverent priest whose screen time is thankfully short. Other horrible performances include that of Alejandro’s biological sister, Nuria (Ana Ayora), whose stilted dialogue combined with her cringe-worthy plotline of an incestuous relationship with Jared make this awful movie even worse.
A crude and inept attempt at creating a comedy, this film has few redeeming qualities. Don’t waste your time or money on this one.
by KAVYA PATHAK
