The Big Wedding

Plot synopsis:
Don and Ellie Griffin were a New England couple married for twenty years before they divorced. They have three children from their marriage – Lyla, Jared, and adopted son Alejandro, who originates from Colombia.
In preparation for Alejandro's wedding, Ellie arrives at Don's (and her old) home, and lets herself in. She interrupts Don just as he is about to perform sex on Bebe, his girlfriend of eight years (and Ellie's former best friend). All are embarrassed, but they make small talk, and he shows Ellie to her room. Meanwhile, Alejandro and his fiancée Missy are meeting with Father Moinighan, the priest who will be marrying them. It is revealed that Alejandro's biological mother Madonna is going to be coming from Colombia to the wedding, which upsets Alejandro since he does not have a "traditional" family, and his Catholic mother would not approve of that or the fact that Don and Ellie had been divorced.
Lyla, who reveals she is separated, goes to the hospital and sees her 29-year-old brother Jared, an OB, after passing out. They talk and it is revealed that he is a virgin and is waiting for the "right one". Back at home, Alejandro tells Ellie about his mother coming to the wedding. Explaining that since she is a devout Catholic and doesn't believe in divorce, Alejandro asks Ellie and Don to pretend to be married for the next three days. Hearing this, Bebe becomes upset and leaves the house, clearly upset at Don. Alejandro's mother arrives with his biological 20-year-old sister, Nuria. Later, Nuria flirts with Jared, after she brazenly strips naked to skinnydip in the family's lake as he watches.
That evening, the family goes out to dinner with Missy and her parents Muffin and Barry, and Bebe shows up as their waitress, which surprises everyone. Meanwhile, Nuria starts fondling Jared under the table, and Ellie sees Nuria giving Jared a handjob. She brings Nuria to the restroom for a chat, telling her that American women behave differently with men. When they arrive home, Jared tells Nuria he wants to have sex, as she had suggested earlier, but she tells him "No", asking him instead to do romantic things for her such as read her poetry. Don and Ellie, meanwhile, end up having sex after Ellie, still pretending to be Don's wife, sleeps in Don's room.
Ellie and Madonna go for a walk in the woods and talk. Neither understands the other's language, though they think they are communicating on some level. At the same time, Don and Lyla talk privately and Lyla reveals she is pregnant. On the wedding day, before the ceremony, Don tells Bebe he had sex with Ellie. Bebe says she forgives them but then punches him in the face. She also reveals that Ellie cheated on Don with Missy's father before Don cheated on her. Muffin says that she knows about Ellie and Barry, and tells them that she is bisexual, implying that she is interested in a sexual affair with both Bebe and Ellie. Meanwhile, Missy and Alejandro have decided to get married on the family dock to escape the chaos. The family runs after them and, after some of them fall into the lake, the wedding reception is on.
During the reception, Jared goes upstairs to talk to Nuria, who tells him she has decided to no longer follow Ellie's advice (about not being so available sexually), and they sleep together. Back at the reception, Ellie and Bebe have made up. Don surprises Bebe by proposing to her, and they get married on the spot. Lyla's husband Andrew arrives at the wedding and, upon finding out that Lyla is pregnant, reconciles with her. Alejandro's mother realizes she has been lied to about his family and he runs after her as she starts to leave. But she reveals that her own past was not as pure as he thought, that she too had lied to protect him, and she forgives him.
Time passes and it is revealed that Lyla has had a daughter named Jane, as Don attaches a plaque with her name to their family tree.

Tags: comedy, adult comedy

Review:
Just throw together a completely meaningless plot, fill it with a couple awkward sexual scenes, remove any hint of real feeling or nuance, and then fill what's left with numerous clichés that are worthy of a B porno flick - and you will get some idea of what "The Big Wedding" is like.It's another one in the long and sadly ever-growing line of Hollywood fiascoes, built on the premise that it's enough to throw together a bunch of star actors to get a blockbuster.
As a fan of four key people in the cast (De Niro, Keaton, Williams, Sarandon), it was pretty much a given that I was going to see this, even if the ads told me that I was destined for a rough ride.There was a certain stripe of made-for-TV movie in the 1980s and early 90s, movies with titles like "Crash Course" and "Baby of the Bride." They featured casts bursting with stars of all the then-hot series (Jackee, Rue McClanahan, etc.) and wacky premises (a wacky driver's ed school!
Given the premise (deduced from the trailer) and the title I was thinking of skipping 'The Big Wedding' but it's got Hollywood's finest actors like Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton and Robert de Niro.
But let's do it anyways: We have the patriarch and matriarchs (Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon); we have the up-and-comers excited for their big day (Ben Barnes and Amanda Seyfried); and then we have the middle siblings who have had their time in the spotlight and are starting to fade away (Topher Grace and Katherine Heigl).The wedding revolves around lies (obviously) and religion - with Robin Williams as the drunken Catholic priest.
At times the film crosses the line from funny dysfunctional family to repulsive dysfunctional family.The one line that "The Big Wedding" straddles well is that between comedy and drama.
I'm glad we went to the cheap matinée.In short, the jokes are all sex-related and not funny, many of the lines seem to have been bad ad-libs, one character speaks in subtitles in a poor attempt to add sophistication to the movie (and she's very annoying at that), and you couldn't care less what happens to any of the characters.
THE BIG WEDDING features not only those three Oscar-winners but we've also got Robin Williams playing a priest and the supporting cast includes the likes of Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried and Topher Grace.
There are three scenes of a highly sexual nature that are extremely funny for those who are not.This is another in the growing trend of using mature actors and it is good to see Diane Keaton and Susan Sarendon in starring roles where some years back they would have disappeared from our screens.
Robert De Niro is excellent, as ever and Robin Williams in the smaller part of the quartet of Oscar winners, made this a foursome of very funny performances.The rest of the cast also turned in fine performances and I think they must have had lots of fun making the film.
What made things even worse is that director Justin Zackham (whose major film credit is writing the screenplay for The Bucket List) had an all-star cast to work with here and none of the characters felt like a real human being.
This is one of the laziest and most shameful movies of the year and I doubt many people will enjoy this "comedy."Alejandro (Ben Barnes) and Missy (Amanda Seyfried) are a young couple preparing for their big wedding, which means that Alejandro's dysfunctional family has to come together for this special occasion.
If you had cut out half the random story lines and the random awkward sexual parts that...for the record did not add to the plot line, it would have been a great movie but as usual a potentially good film is ruined with crude comedy.
When long divorced couple Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) get together for their adopted son Alejandro's (Ben Barnes) wedding to Missy (Amanda Seyfried), they think it will be a piece of cake.
But when news comes about that Alejandro's incredibly Catholic birth mother is coming to the wedding arises, Alejandro has just one request of his parents...pretend to be married.When going into the film, I really wasn't expecting much other than a cheesy rom-com with an all star cast.
I only end up watching movies like this when my mother gets 'conned' by some aggressive TV advertising the film.
Directed by Justin Zackham, who also adapted the screenplay from the 2006 French-Swiss movie Mon Frere Se Marie, The Big Wedding is light on laughs, and even lighter in its dramatic, emotional moments, making it cold and distant, and never quite achieving anything in its featherweight treatment.Imagine the likes of Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams in your cast list.
The premise was set, but hardly anything of note happens, with convenience pretty much summed everything up, and its supposed surprises being pulled off as desperate attempts to add flavour to the mix.De Niro plays Don, who has for many years divorced his wife Ellie (Keaton), and is now in a relationship with Bebe (Sarandon).
Then there's the big lie they have to put up with, because Alejandro's biological mother Madonna (Patricia Rae) is scheduled to attend his wedding, but seriously, at this point, everything had sounded terribly tedious.The narrative then tried to boost its other areas and subplots to pad up the screen time, so we have Don and Ellie's other kids turn up to.
Robin Williams was nothing more than a cameo playing a priest, which he had already done to better results in License to Wed.So expect the usual bickering when characters go head up against one another, especially with Missy's parents Barry (David Rasche) and Muffin (Christine Ebersole) doing nothing but to provide one liner revelations of their entanglements with the main family members.
Surely this could have been that fine comedy when everything comes crashing down at one large, social gathering, but alas, The Big Wedding fell flat on its face, not knowing exactly what to do with talent and hand, and hampered by an extremely unmoving, and uninspiring story that didn't even try to be smart, since it can't get through to hearts, being without one of its own to begin with.One of the worst films of the year?
Having seen Crazy Stupid Love and being surprised with its wit, good script and sophisticated humour I thought The Big Wedding might be a similar kind of film.
They had to read the script prior to signing up....what the heck were they thinking???It's obvious in the first five minutes that the movie is desperately trying for cheap laughs, with sexual situations taking priority over character development.
The movie has got to get better given the talent of the cast, right?Kept shaking my head in profound disbelief throughout the film, watching these great actors stumble thru their idiotic dialogue and circumstances.
The characters were so sloppily written, that this film was essentially like watching a bad sitcom that gets canceled after 3 episodes.Hollywood has really changed, with studios green lighting anything to keep movie theatres full, and great actors now taking any work that comes their way..
The all-star cast did have some nice on screen chemistry and I liked the charm and wit brought on by the great young actors, namely Topher Grace.
He managed to make a film, that was able to tarnish the professional history of such beautiful actors as Robert de Niro, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams and Diane Keaton.
The whole messed up family thing who gathers for a wedding, has been played out, and the only way that this type of movie is interesting is when the characters are interesting, which they definitely are not in this case.
The director should have let Robin Williams loose.Budget: $35million Worldwide Gross: $22million (What a loss!)I recommend this movie to people who are into there films which are based around a couple getting married with a dysfunctional family preparing the wedding.
It wasn't even saved by the great cast and decent cinematography, it was just a flop of a comic attempt with a boring script.Adding lines to the story, like they did, doesn't make it good.
The one thing it has going for itself is its respectable cast but they are so horribly misused and abused I have no idea why a single one of them signed up for this travesty.Robert De Niro (Cape Fear) and Diane Keaton (Father of the Bride) play divorced parents who are reuniting at a beautiful lake house for the wedding of their "brown-skinned" adoptive son, Alejandro (Ben Barnes - Dorian Gray), to a lovely blonde (Amanda Seyfried - Dear John).
It is said by several characters that he is Italian because his future mother-in-law (Christine Ebersole - Black Sheep) fears brown-skinned Hispanic babies although he is supposed to be Colombian (but Barnes is actually a British actor who apparently hit the tanning beds a few times before filming the role ...
Yes, really.So many of the moments in The Big Wedding had me question whether or not I was actually seeing what my eyes were (sadly) ACTUALLY seeing because the content and situations were so dreadfully bad (not to mention embarrassing to some of the actors).Topher Grace (Take Me Home Tonight) and Katherine Heigl (The Ugly Truth) play Alejandro's two adoptive siblings -- him as a sexually-challenged doctor who is relentlessly pursued by Alejandro's "real" sister (uh -- gross but played by Ana Ayora - Marley & Me) who comes to the wedding and her as a cold who-knows-what.
A divorced couple(Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton) have to pretend to be married,cause there adopted son(Ben Barns) real mother, is coming for his wedding and thinks divorce is a big time sin.
Robert De Niro was good, So was Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Topher Grace, Katherine Heigl, Robin Williams and everybody else involved.
The Big Wedding is an awful movie with a poorly written storyline and a great comedic cast that sadly weren't enough to make this movie enjoyable.The set up for the movie sounded fun and unique,and then the cast made it sound even better,but sadly there were very few parts that I genuinely laughed at.The movie had such a great cast and didn't use any of them to full effect,Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton didn't really get to show their dramatic acting skills enough,a great actress like Amanda Seyfried wasn't even in it very long,and Robin Williams (One of the Greatest Comedy Actors of All Time,May He Rest in Peace) could easily have improvised all of his scenes and made them so much funnier,but sadly the director obviously made him go by the script,so all of his lines were very dry humour.Usually the fun thing about comedies that revolve around families is that you can relate to them in a funny way,but there is no way anyone could relate to this family's relationship,the ending was probably what irritated me the most though,most of the conflict in this film isn't resolved.The Big Wedding is not a funny or enjoyable movie and I would recommend it to no one.
The saddest part is watching actors that used to make great movies stoop to taking part in something so unfunny and stale as "The Big Wedding." But I probably said the same thing after watching De Niro's last comedy "The Family." This movie is your typical Hollywood wedding comedy, complete with Robin Williams reprising his role as the priest he played in "License to Wed." Diane Keaton brings back the character she played in "Because I Said So" and takes it up a notch by being even less credible playing the mother of the groom.
With Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams just to name a few, this comedy looks promising; if not for laughs, at least for easy watching with familiar faces.The film is a remake of the 2006 French film Mon Frère Se Marie (My Brother is Getting Married) written by Jean-Stéphane Bron and Karine Sudan.
The film is based around Ellie (Diane Keaton) and Don's (Robert De Niro) adopted Columbian son Alejandro (Ben Barnes) who is getting married.
Hearing Diane Keaton drop the C-bomb is unbelievably refreshing, and who would expect to see De Niro, Sarandon and cunnilingus- in theory and in practice- all incorporated in the first ten of the 89-minute film?But disappointingly, with its simple-minded storyline and some real cringe-worthy stereotypes, the 'The Big Wedding' just doesn't ooze the same stellar quality like that of the cast.
So long divorced couple Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) have to pretend to be married for the sake of their adopted son.It's a wild chaos of swirling wacky characters.
At the very least they deserve a modern, average-quality Woody Allen flick.Starring: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Ben Barnes, Topher Grace, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, and Robin Williams.
The Big WeddingThe upside to a destination wedding is that the plane carrying your in-laws could crash.Unfortunately, the mother-in-law in this comedy landed in America safely.When their adopted son Alejandro (Ben Barnes) announces he's engaged to Missy (Amanda Seyfried), Don (Robert De Niro) and his ex-wife Ellie (Diane Keaton) couldn't be happier.But their joy only last until they learn Alejandro's devout Catholic birth-mother will be attending the wedding, and they must pretend to be married.This doesn't sit well with Don's current girlfriend (Susan Sarandon), Ellie's old best friend.Elsewhere, their other son (Topher Grace) hits on Alejandro's real sister; their daughter (Katherine Heigl) struggles with her boyfriend; and their priest (Robin Williams) tries to make sense of everything.With its wasted cast, tasteless jokes and simplistic sitcom script, this adaptation of the French comedy was lost in translation.Besides, if Catholic priests could get married, they'd condone divorce.Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.com.
The combination of Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams is a match made in heaven - I only needed Meryl Streep to finish off the streak of top-class, aging actors.Topher Grace was surprisingly one of the funniest actors in the film and was perfect for his role as Jared.
This film brings together De Niro and Keaton who also co-starred in Godfather II nearly 40 years ago.One must acknowledge that the lead cast, albeit a strong one, worked well together and pretty much carried the film through leaving everyone else in their shadows even if they included established actresses such as Heigl and Seyfried, not to mention Williams.As a viewing experience it was a charming, pleasant one though without ever reaching any highs as a comedy.
Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel that Robert DeNiro, Dianne Keaton,Susan Sarandon and, even, Katherine Heigl have better things to do with their time; such as, practically anything.Production values are top notch and, at least, you can understand all of the one liners.
The cast (Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robert Deniro, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried, Ben Burnes...) is the strongest element in the movie.
So we know from the trailer that Don (Robert De Niro) has to pretend to be married to his former wife Ellie (Dianne Keaton) so as to protect the groom Al's (Ben Barnes) biological mother from the truth, which leaves a strange predicament for Bebe (Susan Sarandon), Don's current significant other.
The best thing about this film was the casting, if it weren't for so many talented actors; I would never have given it any of my time aside from if I were home with very few options for what to watch on television.
The Big Wedding is certainly slam packed with star power including Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robert De Niro, Topher Grace, Robin Williams, Amanda Seyfried, Ben Barnes, and Katherine Heigl.
Justin Zackham's Star-Studded 'The Big Wedding' is A Decent Comedy, that works due to some truly funny sequences & winning performances by its mammoth cast.'The Big Wedding' Synopsis: A long-divorced couple fakes being married as their family unites for a wedding.'The Big Wedding' is time-pass entertainment, that engrosses in parts.
The well worked plot allows the cast to really play with their roles, that they do effortlessly ( many having played similar parts many times before) The film was funny and sentimental which is all you can ask for.An unremarkable but enjoyable movie ..
It stars Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes (of 'CHRONICLES OF NARNIA' fame), Amanda Seyfried and Robin Williams.
The movie is extremely hit and miss but it does have it's funny moments and the cast is all fun to watch.The film revolves around a young couple, Alejandro (Barnes) and Missy (Seyfried), who are getting married.
The stars, ROBERT DI NIRO; DIANE KEATON; SUSAN SARANDON and even ROBIN WILLIAMS, who I do not like, are very good with what they've to to work with.
all the actors/actresses are great, the plot makes me laugh frequently.it's suitable for a family weekend get together movie watch, and for romantic lovers who is planning a wedding party, or when your mood is really down, you can just watch for some laughs and joy.only one so-unpleasant thing is, i think this movie is a little short and it will be better if filled with more funny parts and meaningful lines.in my perspective, only the proposal lines that Robert De Niro said to Susan Sarandon are good but, as i said, if there are more lines like that, it would be better.
The Big Wedding (2013): Dir: Justin Zackham / Cast: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl: A big comedic mess about really finding out who members of our family really are.
Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams and Topher Grace.