Wedding Belles
Tags: dark, entertaining

Plot synopsis:
Wedding Belles centres around four young women struggling with personal issues, while preparing to throw one of their group the wedding of the year. As the wedding draws nearer, a series of revelations turn their lives into turmoil, and the impending celebration turns into hysterical carnage.
Amanda is the bride-to-be and the matriarch of the group. She is a successful business woman running her own beauty salon. She is set to marry an airline pilot, Joshua. He appears to be too good to be true but, unknown to Amanda, is hiding a dark secret.
Kelly is a troubled soul who, while battling personal demons, upsets all those around her and starts to lose her hair due to stress.
Rhona is an ex-fashion model, who is not coping well with the untimely death of her fiancé. She slips deeper into depression and, through the haze of her furthering drug addiction, decides to seek revenge on her fiancé's killer.
Shaz works as a nurse in an old people's home, who almost gets into trouble for selling Viagra to the residents, while having an affair with the local Catholic priest, Father Henry.

Review: Top Film.
A great film, well worth watch a great writing duo on the rise.
The film moves with pace, and determination.
A great break away from the Bridget Jones cliché of women.
The film takes you on a journey of mayhem, madness and mischief, yet the bond between the four lasses overrides any conflicts they face from the outside world.
The sound track fits the pace of the film perfectly.
Newspapers that insist on exploiting women to sell their papers, a classic case of calling of the pot calling the kettle black.I can't wait for Irvine Welsh's and Dean Cavanagh's next feature, are they the new Galton & Simpson ?.
After being subjected to second rate pedestrian period drama's and lacklustre so called "contemporary" drivel from British TV over the last few years, "Wedding Belles" shot out of the left field and gave me hope in the future of UK broadcasting.Besides the beautiful photography, the rip roaring soundtrack, the "not an ounce of fat" editing and of course the fantastic chemistry of the cast, here was a script that nailed its mission statement on the mast from the get-go.
It went where asbestos booted angels fear to tread.The whole film felt and looked "authored", something we very rarely - if ever- see from UK productions nowadays.
Dean Cavanagh and Irvine Welsh were obviously left to really take their imaginations into overdrive.
For all the shocking scenes they never once took us so far away from a veracity.Being an exiled American I did have a problem understanding the accents and watched with subtitles.
This didn't detract from the sheer joy it, in fact, imagining the subtitlers translating it just added to the humour for me.I watch most of my TV on boxsets and I'd love to see a season of "Wedding Belles".
It made me want to visit Edinburgh week in week out and catch up with these larger than life characters.Truly an outstanding piece of TV worthy of awards..
Welsh at his funniest..
Wedding Belles was a breath of fresh air to British TV.
The acting was outstanding with an exceptional performance from Shirley Henderson.
The screen play was well written and extremely funny, with the actors executing the lines with perfect timing.
Welsh's cameo was amusing as his cameos usually are.
The story is typical of welsh and I am sure people will be offended by his unrelenting honesty and attention to actual life he puts into all his work.What is it about and who will like it?
Fans of train spotting will enjoy the comedy and drama, it is not as controversial as the Acid House but still has the gritty sense of life in parts of Edinburgh, the comedy is the strongest and most important and entertaining part of this little drama.
The story is about the relationships between four female friends that have grown up in the east of Edinburgh, it takes place in the lead up to Amanda's wedding, a few secrets are revealed along the way.
Totally Awesome Film.
Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh's "Wedding Belles" is simply a breath of fresh air.
It's like a cross between a Quentin Tarantino and Mike Leigh film.
I've haven't seen women portrayed this well on screen since...you know, I couldn't really say!
From the surreal beginning to the heartbreaking end this film never slacks for a second.
Wave after wave of attention grabbing scenes fly out at you and you just never know what's going to happen next.It feels and looks so unlike a UK production because of its ambition.
Like Trainspotting before it, Wedding Belles kind of invents its own genre.
What I can say though is that you simply MUST SEE THIS FILM.
I'd defy anyone to watch it and not get hooked.The performances from Henderson and Gomez are career defining and Kathleen McDermott and Shauna McDonald are stars on the up.
It's like a painting.All this and a soundtrack that manages to put Queens Of The Stone Age, Irma Thomas, The Pixies and Lonnie Donegan side by side without it feeling anything but natural and you've got a great work of art..
TV drama doesn't come better than this.
It's unfortunate that this programme's IMDb rating has been dragged down by one person who just plain didn't like it.
From the fantastic, surreal opening sequence to the close, this is simply British TV drama at its best.
The script is razor sharp, every performance flawless, the direction superb.
My guess is it'll get subtitles when it hits HBO, as it surely must.
Irvine Welsh - maestro!
Dennis Potter couldn't have done it better...and praise comes no higher than that..
It is a week to go till Amanda's wedding and the plans are going well.
The four friends revolve around each other as the week that should be progressing towards happiness and love, becomes one of revenge and violence.Let's just get this over with.
There is no real need to read on, my summary line has already told you I didn't like the film and in case you missed it, I did think the film was a terribly pointless mess.
Now, given the gushing praise for this film on this site and the fact that any even semi-negative review is voted "not useful", I imagine you the reader will have already have voted me useless (or in your parlance - "wrong") because I disagree with your views on this title.
So my next problem is where to start with this.Opening with four women in wedding dresses firing bullets into the men who have hurt them somehow, you could be forgiven from thinking that, when we jump to a week before, that the narrative would lead us to this point and explain the whys to us.
In one way the film does move towards this point but only because the flow of time is linear.
In terms of development of the story though, most of the film is really spent going nowhere.
Mostly we hang around with the characters in various situations and it is only in the final third that suddenly motivations for the various acts of revenge are revealed  and they almost all come out of nowhere.
To fill the time what we are left with are various "shocking" or comic moments that include a woman dressed as a nun masturbating an old man (who incidentally needed finishing off because the woman stopped him having sex with a dead woman in fishnets); a woman snorting the ashes of a dead dog; an incident with a man raped by a dog and of course endless swearing.Now my main problem with this was that there was no story to support any of it and indeed even the ending chickens out of everything, suddenly going a bit sentimental and ending in a soft and unsatisfying fashion.
Reading the reviews here, it does appear I'm missing the point by looking for a story or characters because according to those that love it, the film is actually a dark comedy.
I have seen things that are outrageous and funny (Mel Brooks in his heyday comes to mind) but this is just outrageous.
For some viewers this will be enough because they will call it "cult" and embrace it as edgy and darkly comic but from my point of view, the writers have just stuck lots of "gross-out" moments in there, written the C word lots and hoped that the "cult" appeal Welsh gained from Trainspotting will be enough to prevent anyone spotting the total lack of substance or genuine humour (dark or otherwise).It is a terrible shame in some regards because there are real moments here and there in the characters  but they are few and far between.
This wastes the actresses in stupid, foul-mouthed cardboard cut-out characters.
She has a good body and can swear like a trooper but there is nothing else for her to work with.
Henderson has nothing to do but squeak around for so long that when she does eventually have a touching moment, it is devalued by everything that had gone before.
McDermott is goodlooking and natural throughout  a waste that her material is just plain weak.Overall then a mostly pointless and puerile affair that trades off shock value in place of substance  hoping that viewers will just call it "cult" and lap it up.
You're not "wrong" if you loved it, it just means you fall within Welsh's target group.
The good news is that that group is small..
Irvine Welsh.
This awful attempt to write female roles is so clichéd and embarrassing that Mr Welsh should do the literary world a huge favour and go away.Of course he's not the only writer credited for this inept script, but it has Welsh's grubby fingerprints all over it - unfunny farce, 'Allo-Allo style erotica, clichéd misanthropy, and his trademark nowhere-to-go ending!
The fact that this has come out on DVD the day after being screened on TV is blind & ludicrous by the powers that be at CH4 who sanctioned this drivel in the first place.
Who is going to buy this?
This is about Welsh.
A one-hit wonder who has made enough money to respect his loyal audience and stop inflicting this unfunny lazy work upon them.
Before starting the review I must say that if you are offended by swearing, drug use, necrophilia, violence, references to bestiality, more swearing, a priest receiving oral sex from a woman dressed as a nun, the use of derogatory terms for people suffering from mental illness or even more swearing then this probably isn't the film for you, if however you aren't easily offended and you like your comedy fairly dark then you may love this, I know I did.Having enjoyed "Trainspotting" when I saw adverts for a new television film written by Irvine Welsh I just had to see it and when I did see it I enjoyed it so much I had to get the DVD as soon as it was released.
Unlike his earlier film this film follows the lives of four women, the men in it are distinctly secondary characters.
It opens with a bang as four women dressed in bridal gowns go to a grave yard and dig up a corpse before rounding up a teenage joy-rider, a Catholic priest and a Welshman who the take to a canal-side and shoot each of them.
We then go back a week and see the events that lead up to these four women wanting to kill these four men.Amanda, played by Michelle Gomez is looking forward to marrying her fiancé, a Welsh pilot who appears to have no major vices.
Kelly, played by the excellent Shirley Henderson, is helping Amanda by doing her community service punishment for her at the local mental hospital, unfortunately Kelly isn't a hairdresser like Amanda so her attempts at cutting a patient's hair go disastrously wrong.
Rhona, played by Shauna Macdonald, is having problems at her job in an old people's home after supplying an elderly gentleman with Viagra and is having an affair with a Catholic priest.
Finally there is Shaz, played by Kathleen McDermott, who has turned to drugs following the death of her fiancé in a crash caused by a joy-rider.The earlier part of the film is laugh out loud funny in particular the scene at the "saints and sinners" fancy dress party where Kelly is dressed as a Nazi and Rhona beats the living daylights out of a man while dressed as a nun.
The comedy is however tinged with tragedy and by the end when we learnt Kelly's story I was almost in tears.
I've avoided mentioning the funniest scenes as I'd hate to spoil the "I can't believe they did that" reactions they may cause.If you liked "Trainspotting" I'd recommend this while I don't think the writing was as sharp here it is still great film with more laughs than his earlier work.
The acting from the four leading ladies is very good, I particularly liked Shirley Henderson in her role as Kelly, but then she is always good..
For anyone who likes their films hard and fast and hilarious and sexy and rock n rolling, well look no further.
Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh have turned in an amazing script that is taken to another level with magical direction by Philip John and outstanding performances from Gomez, Henderson, McDermott and McDonald.
The soundtrack is awesome.I'd be astounded if Wedding Belles didn't become a series.
Wedding Belles blows the usual rubbish like Skins and Goldplated and Shameless out of the water.
It was a genuine joy to see something so original and exciting coming out of the UK.I hope the BAFTA judges watched it because Henderson and Gomez deserve best TV actresses by a long mile..
One of the freshest and most engaging scripts I've seen on British television in years.
I can't believe the sad case who spent all that time and effort telling everybody how much he or she hated it.
What do people like that want for television drama- more mind numbing rubbish like the Bill pushed down our throats?Wedding Belles shows that we have the writing and acting talent to compete with the best that HBO can offer.
C'mon programmers, get your fingers out and stop wasting our time and money on soulless crud.
Give us more of Shirley Henderson, Michelle Gomez, Kathy McDermott and Shauna MacDonald performing the brilliant material of Irvin Welsh and Dean Kavanagh..
About 30 Minutes into the Film I Started to Doze.
Sorry, but I must disagree with the earlier rave reviews.
Overall this film was just raunchy.
The only consistent theme through the film was the hate Rhona, Shaz etc.
If the women's roles were transposed with men's roles & vice versa, the film would never have been made.
Looking into the lives of what Americans call 'white trash' isn't particularly entertaining.
If the story had an underlying theme that challenged the imagination and intellect, I would have stayed interested.
If anyone other than Irvine Welsh's name had been on the script it would never have been made.
Welsh and Cavanagh obviously sat down and came up with a checklist of taboos that they decided would shock or offend and then tried to build a script around it.
From snorting the ashes of a dead dog (how original) to sucking off a priest, every moment of it was calculated and manipulative.
One reviewer unbelievably commented that 'it had heart.
This was a classic case of the emperor's new clothes - "it was written by Irvine Welsh so it must be good".
excellent,,,,,, twist on life as we don't know it.
the best thing thats been on the TV in the last year, you have to have a bit of an understanding of the twisted Scottish humour in it and the dialect, but if you can get your mind around that then your on to a winner,sit back, relax and enjoy the best bit of semi fictional viewing that you've seen or will see in a long time,, Welsh comes through with another winner, nearly as good as Trainspotting.
Not as heavy going in places as Trainspotting or The Acid House but cuts into subjects that are beyond those.
The subjects of incest, gambling addiction,drug addiction, joy riding, social discrimination and sex within the church are dealt with in a shocking but very humorous way Excellent is all i can say,i nearly pee'd my pants a few times.
funniest thing I have seen in ages we did not stop laughing from the first opening scenes (a bit black admittedly) until the (bit overly sentimental) ending.
Loved it, Michelle Gomez is again amazing as an off the wall character, but this time with a soft side and a heart.
Loved Shirley Henderson in taming of the shrew and she shows the same vulnerable edge in this.
She is damaged and you want to know why, the story from the first scenes keep you hooked, and the promotional shots of them all in wedding dresses with the corpses keeps you wondering why and how did they get to this.This will probably offend a lot of people and good on it, if they don't have a sense of humour they deserve to be offended.
The two main leads Michelle and Shirly have the story lines, but the other two actresses have sound side stories.
Glad that the ending did not tie everything up in an even package, that would have been too easy and does not fit with the overall feel of the piece.
some decent side characters add to the mirth of the programme.
Thoroughly worth a second watch.
Wedding Belles.
When I saw the advert for this one off drama starring the Green Wing actress and the Moaning Myrtle (Harry Potter) actress, and then I heard it was the writer of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh, I knew I was going to be very stupid to miss this, and I was right to.
The story starts with one bride, Amanda (Michelle Gomez), and three brides maids, Kelly (Shirley Henderson, who I didn't realise was really Scottish), Rhona (Shauna Macdonald) and Shaz (Kathleen McDermott) shooting the four men that hurt them most, the groom, the priest, a young guy, and a guy that is already dead.
I thought the story was going to be the reason for their hate, but you find out eventually it was a "wonderful" dream that one of them had.
Anyway, it is basically the individual stories with each girl and their relationships, leading up to Amanda's wedding day.
There are quite a few controversial moments, including giving a blow job to a praying priest, snorting a dog's ashes thinking it was cocaine, obviously the shooting at the beginning, some fights in pubs, Kelly dressing like a Nazi German, and obviously drugs, drinking and sexual acts.
A very good Scottish drama, just as good as Trainspotting.