MOVIE
REVIEW: License to Wed
06/30/07
As the Frank
Sinatra song goes, “Love and marriage, love and marriage, go
together like a horse and carriage”, or does it? According
to Reverend Frank (Robin Williams), it takes some work and
preparation. You shouldn’t just jump in and hope for the
best. Some movies you have to take at face value with
reasonable expectations. This is one of them. It is not a
summer blockbuster, but it is not a bad movie by any means
either. It is a quaint, light-hearted comedy about a very
common topic with a slight twist and a lesson to be learned.
Sadie (Mandy Moore) and Ben (John Krasinski) want to get
married. Sadie pulls toward getting married locally at
the family church with the family pastor, Reverend Frank.
The problem is that Reverend Frank is at war against the
divorce rate and his latest battle is his marriage
preparation course. If you pass the intense course according
to the Reverend’s standards, he will marry you. No pressure,
I mean, how hard can it be, right? Well, after dealing with
“how to fight fairly” training, in-law relations testing, no
sex until after the wedding, and twin mechanical
babies, you start to realize that marriage is not just about
love and how badly you want to strangle the Reverend.
I believe that Robin Williams is truly one of the great
actors of our time. Not that this particular role was at all
challenging for him, but he still masters it in a subtle yet
commanding way. It is not goofy Robin playing a Reverend, it
is Robin playing a goofy Reverend. From Mandy to John and
even the Choir Boy, Josh Flitter, there is a lot of
potential. They are all developing quite nicely as stars of
the big screen. Mandy as Sadie is just gorgeous and a
control freak, while John as Ben does a good job playing a
regular guy that most guys can relate to. As for the rest of
the cast, I think they were underused.
Director Ken Kwapis (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, “The
Office”, “Malcolm in the Middle”) was able to blend
these different characters quite well to tell this story
that would normally have been cliché. What makes it unique
and fun is the unorthodox ways of Reverend Frank. It was
also pleasant to see how Ken uses this comedy to shed light
on how society is taking marriage for granted. I, for one,
thank you Ken and the whole cast and crew of this movie. I
highly recommend this movie to those of you who are planning
to get married at some point. You might learn a thing or two
about married life and have a nice laugh here and there at
the same time.
Review By Cine Marcos
cinemarcos@smartcine.com
People Movie Review
License to Wed
Bob Mehaffy |
30 |
This movie is lame! Robin Williams does
a good job, but the basic premise is so
flawed that even Robin Williams can't
save the movie from becoming silly. The
Reverend that Williams plays is a sicko
voyeur who gets his kicks putting hidden
microphones in the bedrooms of the
people he counsels. And his idea of
helping young couples get to know each
other is to put them in humiliating
situations that cause the couple about
to get married to fight, assuming
they'll discover the real person they're
about to marry. I've been going to
movies for over 50 years now, and
haven't seen a less impressive file. I
can't think of any reason
to tell someone to go see this film. |
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Director: Ken Kwapis
Writer: Kim Barker (Screenplay)
Tim Rasmussen
(Screenplay)
Vince DiMeglio
(Screenplay)
Kim Barker
(Story)
Wayne Lloyd(Story)
Genre:
Comedy Romance
Duration: 1hr 31mins
Staring:
Robin Williams
Mandy Moore
John Krasinski
Christine Taylor
Eric Christian Olsen
Josh Flitter
Producer:
Mike Medavoy
Arnold W. Messer
Nick Osborne
Robert Simonds
Distributor: Warner Bros
Rating:
PG-13
Release Date: July 3, 2007
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