I’m taking a look at one of my all time favourite comedy
movies.
I should note before we begin that this review will not contain
any comparisons to the original 1950 version, because I haven’t seen it. If get my hands on a copy of that movie I may
do a review of it, or a comparison of the two at a later date.
So, looking at this film as its own entity I have to say
that this movie starts off really well, and its tone is set nicely during the
opening credits. With the use of Here Comes the Bride mixed in
with the film’s soundtrack that lets us know what this film will be about, in case
someone didn’t check the title before sitting down to watch it. We have soft colours, whites and light pinks,
soft candlelight; cozy shots of the house as the camera pans over the aftermath
of the wedding. It’s comfortable and the
opening talk George Banks gives to the audience makes us comfortable with him, and
puts us in a position to understand his feelings and outlook on the whole event. We are going to be with him for the whole
movie after all, while he does several stupid things in fact, and yet we still
sympathize with him.
On a technical note I must say that I love the transition
between George talking about the storm breaking, his daughter’s wedding, and
cutting to the shoe rack at his job.
Nice work by the editing team. It
definitely helps cement the tone further as well because for George, as he
describes it, this event was an ordeal for him.
It’s all about letting his daughter really grow-up into a woman and
letting that part of his life go, and George is focusing on all the nitpicky
details of the wedding so he doesn’t have to deal with what it all really
means: a permanent change in his life.
And as George said in his intro and his narrative he’s not a guy who is
big on change, and your daughter getting married is one of the biggest changes
of all. We as an audience get to see how
difficult this change can be for a parent.
Actually if we had been looking at this film from someone
else’s point of view George probably would have been the villain; the stubborn
father who is making everybody’s lives miserable by complaining about money, the
soon to be son in law, Franck, the in-laws, etc.
We even get a bit of this when Nina and George argue over getting a
wedding coordinator. Then after Annie
blows up over the guest list and George finds her with a magazine with tips for
planning a wedding on a budget he tries to back off. It’s then that he realizes that his actions
and words were being hurtful, even the things he meant as jokes. At that point he checks himself and tries to
stop being a jerk and just going with the flow.
He starts trying to get more involved with the planning of the wedding,
and even trying to have some fun with it when he pulls his old suit out of the
attic. He doesn’t succeed with this new
attitude, as we discover with the hilarious hotdog bun and jail scene that follow
that decision, but at least he made an effort.
A memo to Hollywood executives and writers, this is how you show a
flawed character that is still sympathetic and not have him come off as a
jackass!
In fact I still agree with George on some things that he
complains about. Why does everyone
ignore the costs of everything? I mean
if Nina and George are agreeing to pay for this shouldn’t they get to set some ceiling
on costs? Yes, there’s something to be said
for wanting to give your daughter a beautiful day, and then there’s not getting
a second mortgage on your house to supply it.
Why is the bride’s family responsible for bringing over people from the
groom’s family as guests? If the
relatives in Denmark can’t make it because of the costs why don’t they just
not come? I can also see why George
would feel left out and ignored, and then lash out and overreact when
everybody’s attitude seems to be, gives us your wallet and go away. Of course all he talks about is the cost of
the wedding he has nothing else to talk about, because it seems like every
decision is being made without his knowledge!
For example when Franck and Howard come over to finalize plans George
discovers that there are already plans for remodelling of the house, having
swans, and a tulip border that he had no clue about. He does overact to things like the in-laws by
snooping through their bank books, and his flippant attitude with the whole
steak pit and BBQ wedding ideas certainly doesn’t endear him to others to want to give him
stuff to do with the wedding, but come on. At least let him do something besides picking
out the band singer. Still when the
chips are down, when Annie wants to cancel the wedding after the fight about
the blender, George does the right thing and tries to help get the two back
together. At that point he has come, at
least part way, I think to where Nina is in viewing the wedding. As a milestone event in her daughter’s life
that she wants to make perfect for her, and she knows Annie moving on to this
next stage in her life is a good thing, it means they’ve done their jobs as
parents. Nina sees her daughter as she
is now, a woman. George on the other
hand is still working on it, but at least he has realized that his daughter has
made a good choice in Bryan.
On a side note, while the sets look wonderful I want to know
who was in charge of making sure the sets were corresponding with their outside
and inside looks because that was a real screw up, one of the few this film has.
I mean we see, when Franck and Howard are over to finalize the reception planning, doors in the living that go out to where I presume
the backyard is, setting up the George rips his suit gag when they don't open properly, and yet when the
outside of the house was seen earlier it clearly showed only windows on that
side, and that that was the front of the house not the back! We also have two sets of stairs that seem to meet at the same point on the second level. This house has the worst building
design since Blanche Devourx’s on The Golden Girls!
Oh well, while the inside and out set continuity leaves something to
be desired the comedy is nicely done throughout this film. From throw away one liner’s like Franck’s line
about the Banks’ house “It’s lovely-we change it all though,” to all the
physical comedy with George at the in-laws house when he and Nina go to meet
them for breakfast. (Franck by the way is
also a marvellous performance for Martin Short and I honestly wouldn’t have
realized that was him were it not for the credits telling me that.) We even get
nice little comedic moments during the wedding montage. My personal favourite being the scene with
George’s new suit, George may have to spend a lot of money on things for
everybody else, but if he can save money on his own clothes he’s going to.
With the end of the montage and the blender fight we get to
third act of the movie and the theme of letting go comes to a head. We got a bit of it with Nina confronting
George in jail and getting him to promise to mellow out, and the blender fight where he comes to see that Bryan is a good match with Annie,
but now we close it out fully. We heard
in the opening conversation and narration that George still thinks of Annie as
his little girl. To quote him: “I couldn’t wait to see the kid,” and Annie is
twenty-two at this point. Even in the
dinner scene George is ready to have everything go back to the way it was
before Annie went to Rome, planning family events as if Annie was still
fifteen. I like that this is
acknowledged with the montage of George thinking back to Annie growing up and
he confirms this during the wedding itself with his emotional line: “I suddenly
realized what was happening. Annie was
all grown-up and leaving us, and something inside began to hurt.” Meanwhile while
George was reminiscing Annie was out by the basketball court realizing the same
thing. That it really is her last night as
a kid, at home in her own room. Life is going to be forever
different after this and that’s hard to deal with sometimes, but we do. So, Annie gets married. The whole wedding itself is beautiful, the
lighting is soft, the set is gorgeous, the wedding dress is marvellous and the music
is appropriately touching; a wonderful job by everyone on the creative team. The only nitpick I have about is, why do they
have the scene with Matt and George right before this practicing the left together
right together walk and then have everybody walk right left down the aisle like you
would walk down a street?
Now we get to the final scenes at the reception and I have
to say that I have a love hate relationship with this final part of the
movie. Although it contains some of the
funniest gags in the film, with the running joke of George’s blue suit, Matthew
and Camron driving the cars, and Franck wanting to bribe the police with
George’s wallet; it also seems to be convoluted in its need to kick George
around. I mean he doesn’t get to see
Annie once during the entire reception and nobody cares?
Further convolution happens with the pace of the event. For example they announce dinner and everyone
gets in line, with George at the very end, and George is just about to get food
when Franck gets him to deal with police, (and how did the police get their cruiser
next to the house if the cars are filling the street? And where exactly were the parking attendants
supposed to be putting the cars if they’re already parked so close together on
the street you can’t move them?) and then Franck goes back to the tent
because the cake is being wheeled out. So,
wait a minute the people at the end of the food line will have been eating for
maybe ten minutes at most, and they're already cutting the cake? This is has got to be the fastest wedding
reception in history. This gets even
worse when Annie and Bryan change to go to the honeymoon limo. Now wedding dresses are usually difficult to
take on and off, that’s what the bridesmaids are for. Yet here Annie and Bryan manage to get out of
the dress and suit respectively and get in to plain travel clothes before
George makes it across the yard? Does
Annie have the Tardis in her room and didn’t tell anyone?
Still, we end the film on a high note with George getting to
say goodbye to Annie over the telephone before she leaves the airport and he and Nina dancing together, still so much in love themselves after being married for many years, showing us that even
though things have changed life will still go on. To sum it all up this is still one of my
favourite films. For all that the final
scenes totally break my brain in terms of logic lots of the gags are still
funny even there. The characters are
well-rounded and likeable, the only exception perhaps is Bryan who is pretty
much the cookie-cutter good guy fiancé.
George is the high strung emotional clinging dad and he’s well balanced
by his level-headed collected wife.
Annie is fun and spunky and Matthew is fun to watch instead of
cringe-worthy as is so often the case with young actors in family films. The sets may not work as a real house, but
they are lit nicely and they are staged with a cozy homey feel. The theme of letting go is subtlety explored
and wonderfully sweet, and given a nice gut punching line to close it out with. All told it’s a fun touching film and I
highly recommend it.
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