One of Sandler's more likable offerings

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2016)

Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) is a wedding singer who himself is due to marry his fiancée Linda (Angela Featherstone). However, when Robbie finds himself being jilted by his fiancée on their wedding day he finds himself at an all-time low. Robbie strikes up a friendship with Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore) who is also due to marry her fiancée Glenn Guglia (Matthew Glave) and by spending time with Robbie she begins to question whether Glenn is really the right man for her.
The Wedding Singer's rather flimsy premise of 'boy meets girl' and 'boy and girl being betrothed to the wrong partners' is in itself rather banal. However, I have to admit that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film as a whole. I think the main thing that runs in the film's favour is that it is so likable and it also helps that Sandler plays a likable character - he's so much better when he just plays things straight like he does here.
Although the premise is flimsy, it is at least believable and I'm sure we've all come across people like Glenn, Robbie and Julia in our lives. This is one of the reasons it works in that it has a rather down-to-earth premise, but one that also is sweet-natured and one that also has some nice messages thrown in for good measure. As well as being a sweet film, it's also a film that is very funny too - although it's a film that has sporadic intervals of humour rather than being consistently funny. This isn't a problem as it's clear that director Frank Coraci and writer Tim Herilhy wanted to generally maintain a warm-hearted tone so for me it was a fairly balanced film.
The cast are also on top form here with both Sandler and Barrymore being adorable together. Glave is very good as the snobbish up his own backside fiancée of Barrymore and likes of Christine Taylor and Allen Covert also offer good support.
The ending of the film was a blast and contains a cameo from an icon from the 80's. Things do get a bit mawkish and mushy towards the end, but with a film that's as lovely as The Wedding Singer none of this really matters.
This is definitely one of the better Sandler offerings which manages to be sweet, likable and most importantly have fun whilst it's doing all of these things.