Sandler's best

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2006)

I remember catching glimpses of ads for this, introducing the 2 protagonists, Robbie (Adam Sandler) and Julia (Drew Barrymore), stating "and they're getting married - but not to each other". I assumed it was going to be another movie about a nasty love triangle where the 1 engaged love interest is torn, as is a married 2nd 1. I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a blast from the 1st scene, a delightful one where wedding singer Robbie Hart is introduced singing "You Spin Me Round" enthusiastically enough to get every person to dance and enjoy the whole thing. I'd love to have him at my wedding. After finishing singing/shooting out jokes, zingers, and compliments, he saves the groom humiliation from his jealous drunken brother (Steve Buscemi in 1 of his funnier acts), and a drunk boy embarrassment, while meeting waitress Julia Sullivan. While he's euphoric over his approaching marriage, she despairs that her boyfriend of 4 years who proposed 2 years ago has yet to announce when their big day will be. The 2 agree that if her wedding occurs, Robbie will sing since Julia is scheduled to waitress at his. Unfortunely, his wedding is cut short when Linda (Angela Featherstone) is a no-show and, when we actually see her meeting him shortly later, tells him that the problems of his being poor, no longer a famous rock artist, and living with his in-laws have snuck up on her. While he becomes depressed over everything from his life to his job, Julia's fortune also does a 180: Glenn (Matthew Glave) sets the date. When Robbie's friends and family tactlessly advise him to go back to work to stop him moping in bed, he barely makes it through singing, and after being criticized by her father for hollowly congratulating the groom for the bride's presence, turns to insulting guests and singing (better) "Love Stinks", & gets kicked out. Julia is the only 1 who encourages and sympathizes w/him, even when he says he can't consider doing his now hated job for her. "They eat prime rib, and I sing. It's a joke" he says. A few weeks later he seems to be having an easier time, since he goes to Julia and Glenn's engagement party with player buddy Sammy, and sings at bar mitzvahs if not weddings. Still, he's reluctant to help Julia when she requests his advice on wedding plans, since everyone she knows including Glenn is unable. As he does, he begins to fall in love with her despite his denials, and attempts to go out with her player cousin Holly (Christine Taylor). When he and Glenn get a moment alone and begin to discuss beautiful women, he learns that Glenn is only marrying Julia, whom he considers trustworthy since she loved him before he became rich, so they won't break up - and doesn't really love her enough to talk about, either. Now he has to figure out how to tell Julia he loves her more than Glenn does. This is Sandler's masterpiece. I think my reason for saying that is, unlike Big Daddy, Billy Madison, or Happy Gilmore, his character here is neither foul nor self-centered and lazy. True, he does shout when Linda and a bride's father criticize him, and his causing a stir at that wedding is a Sandler-like quality, but for most of it we see him as a good-natured people person. Even his missing the mark when Linda describes how he used to be a rock band lead singer wearing certain clothes by replying that he'll wear them seems more like a reactant to shock rather than stupidity; and he probably blows his opportunity for a banker's job with bizarre honesty because he's too nervous to think of a lie that'd get him accepted. I find it a bit odd that Robbie doesn't care about $ at all - he lives beneath his sister's family and prefers to be paid for music lessons in meatballs, but it's even odder when Julia, trying to convince him not to act like he has a sudden liking of it, says he doesn't want to be another yuppie - doesn't she find it odd that he hardly seems aware of $, even if that's preferable? The thing I never understand and probably never will is why he's always wanted to be married and start a family of his own since his parents' death when he was a kid. I don't think it was too realistic for Linda to realize 6 years after Robbie left his failed career that he was no longer a rock artist, or to "learn to deal with" it 3 months later; that Robbie loved her so much though she wasn't particularly attractive and he admitted later to being blind to her numerous personality flaws; or for Sammy and Holly to begin looking interested in one another near the end since they seemed to know each other and ignored each other for most of the movie. Still, this is a great movie. There's plenty of funny parts, such as unexpected dialogue of an elderly woman Robbie teaches and an old man he and Sammy meet in a bar. The climactic scene on a plane seemed unrealistic and bizarre (Robbie's story of romance and odd song is well-received by all), but still enjoyable. He looked the part of a wedding singer, and it's great that Adam Sandler could sing! It was great to feel real chemistry between him and Drew Barrymore. I loved the numerous '80s references, and the awesome soundtrack - as well as other music, such as the string version of "Don't Stop Believin'" at the backyard wedding. A favorite.