The Wedding Singer

**The Wedding Singer** is a 1998 American romantic comedy directed by Frank Coraci. It was released on February 13, 1998.

## Plot

Robbie Hart is a wedding singer in Ridgefield, New Jersey in 1985, whose own wedding to his fiancé Linda is approaching. He meets and befriends Julia Sullivan, a new waitress at the reception hall where he works, and promises to sing at her wedding, though her fiancé, businessman and bond investor Glenn Gulia, has yet to set a date.

On Robbie's wedding day, his sister Kate informs him as he waits at the altar that Linda has changed her mind about the wedding, leaving him humiliated and emotionally devastated. Later that day, Linda visits Robbie and reveals that she fell in love with him for his ambitions of being a rock star, and hates the idea of being married to just a wedding singer. Robbie sinks into depression, causing his friends and family to be concerned. His best friend Sammy convinces him to return to work, but he gives a depressed performance that is panned, and decides to give up wedding gigs and reneges on his promise to sing for Julia when Glenn finally sets a date. However, Julia convinces him to help her with the planning and their friendship blossoms. During a double date with Julia, Glenn, and Julia's cousin Holly, Robbie learns from Glenn that he cheats on Julia frequently and plans to continue after they are married.

Julia and Robbie are increasingly confused by their deepening feelings for each other. When Holly tells Robbie that Julia is marrying Glenn for his money, he unsuccessfully pursues a job at a bank. Julia is dismayed at his materialism, and when he accuses her of the same, she becomes angry with him. Depressed, he decides to follow Sammy's example of only having shallow relationships with women, in response to which Sammy confides that he is unhappy, and encourages Robbie to tell Julia how he feels. Meanwhile, Julia confides in her mother that she has fallen out of love with Glenn and has developed feelings for Robbie, and bursts into tears thinking about becoming "Mrs. Julia Gulia". Robbie arrives to declare his feelings, and sees her through her bedroom window in her wedding dress, where she is happily looking in a mirror pretending she has just married Robbie, but Robbie assumes she is thinking of Glenn.

Heartbroken, Robbie leaves to get drunk and finds Glenn in the midst of his pre-wedding bachelor party, arm in arm with another woman. After a heated exchange, Glenn punches Robbie and mocks him. Robbie stumbles home to find Linda waiting for him wanting to reconcile, and passes out. The following morning, she answers the door and introduces herself as his fiancé to a crestfallen Julia. She runs to Glenn, who is sleeping off the events of the previous night, and tells him she wants to be married immediately. He half-heartedly offers to take her to Las Vegas.

Robbie awakens and, after shaking off his hangover from the previous night, rejects Linda's reconciliation, having realised how shallow she is during his time with Julia, and kicks her out. At the 50th wedding anniversary party of his neighbour Rosie, to whom he has been giving singing lessons, he realises he wants to grow old with Julia and, with Rosie's encouragement, he decides to pursue her. Just then, Holly arrives and informs him of Julia's encounter with Linda, so Robbie rushes to the airport and gets a first class ticket to Las Vegas.

After telling his story to his empathetic fellow passengers, which include Billy Idol, he learns that Glenn and Julia are on the same flight. With the help of Billy and the flight crew, over the loudspeaker, he sings a song he has written called "Grow Old With You", dedicated to Julia. As Robbie enters the main cabin singing, Glenn tries to assault him only to be thwarted and shoved into a lavatory by the flight attendants with assistance from Billy and a large fan. Robbie and Julia admit their love for each other, and share a kiss. Billy, impressed by Robbie's song, offers to tell his record company executives about him. Later, Robbie and Julia are married, and Robbie's bandmates perform at their wedding.

## Cast and Characters

* Adam Sandler as Robbie Hart
* Drew Barrymore as Julia Sullivan
* Christine Taylor as Holly Sullivan
* Allen Covert as Sammy
* Angela Featherstone as Linda
* Matthew Glave as Glenn Gulia
* Alexis Arquette as George Stitzer
* Frank Sivero as Andy
* Christina Pickles as Angie Sullivan
* Ellen Albertini Dow as Rosie
* Jodi Thelen as Kate Hart
* Patrick McTavish as Tyler
* Gemini Barnett as Petey
* Teddy Castellucci, Randy Razz and John Vana as Robbie's Band Members
* Billy Idol as Himself
* Kevin Nealon as Mr. Simms
* Marnie Schneider as Joyce
* Carmen Filpi as Old Man in Bar
* Robert Smigel as Andre
* Todd Hurst as Drunk Teenager
* Peter Dante as Jack Nisbet
* Michael Shuman as Bar Mitzvah Boy
* Steven Brill as Glenn's Buddy
* Timothy P. Herlihy as Rudy
* Shanna Moakler as Flight Attendant
* Al Burke as Billy Idol Fan
* Steve Buscemi as David Veltri
* Jon Lovitz as Jimmie Moore
* Brian Posehn as Man at Dining Table #9
* Chauntal Lewis as Stuck-up Girl at Bar Mitzvah

## Production

Adam Sandler had an idea for a comedy about a wedding singer who gets left at the altar, and suggested it to Tim Herlihy. Inspired by the radio show "Lost in the '80s" Herlihy decided to set the film in that decade. Herlihy had not set out to do anything different and thought the script was similar to his previous collaborations with Sandler. The changes came naturally, and he attributed the differences to his recently having gotten married, as well as the chemistry between Sandler and Barrymore. Herlihy was aware that Sandler's previous films had lacked a female perspective, and emphasized the importance of Barrymore. He explained that she was so great in her scenes that test audiences did not complain about Sandler not being in every scene as they had done for his previous films, and as a result more of her scenes survived and were included in the final film. Carrie Fisher, a frequent script doctor, was brought on to make the female part more balanced. Judd Apatow and Sandler also performed uncredited rewrites of the script.

Director Frank Coraci was friends with Sandler since they went to college at NYU and could hardly believe that he and his friends had the opportunity to make films together. Coraci had also gotten over his own experiences of romantic heartbreak a few years earlier and was able to look back on it differently and instead allow it to be funny. Coraci was a fan of director John Hughes and mentioned his films as an important influence.

Barrymore approached Sandler about working together on a film, saying they were "cinematic soulmates" before they had even worked together. Barrymore had a great relationship with Coraci, and praised him for balancing the broad comedy with the important moments of emotion and intimacy. Sandler would often make Barrymore laugh out of context, so that even after a long day, her laughs on camera would be real. In addition, she would not read or hear the songs until the first shoot so that her reactions would be more spontaneous.

Principal photography took place in California from February 3 to March 25, 1997.

## Reception

### Critical Response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 72% based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3 out of 10. The website's critics consensus reads, "It's decidedly uneven, and surprisingly sappy for an early Adam Sandler comedy, but The Wedding Singer is also sweet, funny, and beguiling." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Leonard Klady of Variety wrote: "Director Frank Coraci and scripter Tim Herlihy work in concert to maintain a quality of farce rooted in human comedy." Roger Ebert gave the film a negative review and wrote: "The screenplay reads like a collaboration between Jekyll and Hyde."

Boy George responded to the film, saying that when he saw Alexis Arquette doing an impersonation of him and singing "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" he thought it was hilarious.

The film has frequently been ranked as one of Sandler's best comedies.

### Box Office

The film had a budget of $18 million and made $123.3 million worldwide in ticket sales. It opened in second in the U.S. with $18.8 million, behind holdover Titanic.