The Wedding Singer (1998)
*** out of *****
Cast: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Angela Featherstone, Christina Pickles, Steve Buscemi, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Billy Idol, Robert Smigel, Alexis Arquette Written by: Tim Herlihy Directed by: Frank Coraci Running Time: 90 minutes
The Wedding Singer surprised me in a way that I really didn't want to be surprised. It has a level of sweetness to it that I really didn't expect, and quite frankly going into it, really didn't want either. I expected more of the angry-type humor that made Happy Gilmore so funny. But The Wedding Singer does have it's humorous moments, and in the end, the sweetness of the film did win me over.
Adam Sandler plays the title character, a young man who earns a living singing at local weddings. The day before his own wedding, his fiancee (Angela Featherstone) dumps him. He then starts to fall in love with a waitress (Drew Barrymore) that he met at one of his shows. Trouble is that she's engaged to be married as well. On top of that, the guy she's engaged to is a real jerk, but only Sandler seems to know that. Oh what to do?
The Wedding Singer takes place in 1985, for no real reason except for some "gimmick" laughs and the chance to release yet another retro 80s compilation soundtrack. The gimmicks I'm referring to involving throwing 80s cultural icons at us and expecting us to laugh at them just because they're from the 80s. See that? It's a Rubix Cube! Remember those? It's funny! It's a Rubix Cube! That guy dressed like Michael Jackson! He's funny! Jokes like that are a sign of weak writing.
I say that The Wedding Singer won me over mainly because of Drew Barrymore's character. She's just so cute in this movie. Late in the film it looks as though things aren't going to work out between Sandler and Barrymore and I felt bad for them. It didn't matter that I knew exactly how the story would end up even before the opening credits started, and it didn't matter that I'd seen scenes like that countless times before. For a few moments, I felt for these characters. For a film this weak to be able to do that... well then there must be something a little special about it. [PG-13]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL: http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email: chuckd21@leading.net
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