Absolutely Delightful

Rating: 8/10 (19 April 2020)

It's been a while since I last watched this film, and it certainly doesn't fall into the typical Adam Sandler type of film, namely that a man-child is forced to grow up. In fact, it is sort of completely the opposite, though I'm not entirely sure whether his character in this film would strictly be considered a man-child. Yet, in another sense, I guess it is also one of those films when the main characters are trying to come to grips with who they are and what they really actually want in life.
Basically, it is about Bobby Hart, a guy that sings in a band at weddings. He used to be in a band, but that sort of fell through, and these days he works at a reception hall singing for weddings, and also teaching people to sing, and being paid in meatballs. He was supposed to get married, but his fiancee decided that she didn't want to do it anymore, namely because he hadn't become the rock star that she thought he would become when she first met him.
So, he meets this young lady named Julia who is also working for the same reception place, and they become friends. Now, Julia is also engaged to get married, but not surprisingly the guy that she is going to marry is a bit of tool. The thing is that they whole movie is really all about how Bobby and Julia realise that they actually like each other more than their respective partners, and as such, like all romantic comedies, you can probably guess how it ends.
Yeah, this is one of those interesting films, and I guess it raises all these questions about who we should marry, why we should marry, and whether we are actually marrying the right person. Mind you, I doubt that weddings have been called off because of this film, namely because you really don't know what a person is like until you take off those rose coloured glasses, an in many cases we really don't want to do that because, well, we don't know what we will see.
There is this discussion as to why we marry who we marry, and one of the things comes down to security. Like, I actually think that this security is more a security against loneliness, something that for some reason your best friend can provide you with, but a partner for some reason can. Yet I still feel that this film, like a lot of the romantic comedies out there, really does lack a lot of realism. Sure, Julia is this really nice guy that right from the beginning has been having second thoughts about this guy that she was going to marry, but was going ahead with it anyway because, well, it just seems to be the right thing to do, and in anyway he is also quite wealthy.
Still, I did find this film to be rather delightful, and funny in that rather Adam Sandler sort of way as well. In fact, I ended up originally watching it simply because of Adam Sandler, who happened to be a bit of a popular actor around the time the film was release, especially with Happy Gilmore. Normally, though, I don't like romantic comedies, but Adam Sandler, especially with the way he does play the perfect man boy, is able to pull it so that in the end I'll enjoy it.
Oh, and I do love the tributes to the 80s, not just the music, but a number of jokes that maybe only those of us who lived through the 80s will get. Well, yeah, there is also the mullet, which is definitely so 80s, but there is also the Van Halen joke, and Billy Idol (though he certainly did look older in this film than he did when he was in the 80s). Yeah, this film definitely has a lot of nostolgia value about it.