The Big Wedding

The wedding-movie genre tends to be rather disposable. Most of them are comedy-of-error situations that are resolved with sickly, sappy results. However, when it comes to The Big Wedding, what could have been a disastrous, generic comedy is saved by some big names and a solid script. Veteran actors Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton play the divorced parents of their youngest, adopted son who’s about to tie the knot. Problems arise when the son’s Columbian, ultra-Catholic birth mother arrives and they have to pull the wool over her eyes. DeNiro is shacked up with longtime partner Susan Sarandon, but she’s shooed to the side while he and Keaton play the part of a happily married couple. Uh-oh! DeNiro steals the movie as the crass, salty dog of a father; Robin Williams is fun as the surprisingly unobnoxious Catholic priest; and Sarandon is still the most beautiful woman on the planet.