Dermot Mulroney seems like a very capable filmmaking professional. As an actor, he's been involved with a few challenging, thought-provoking pictures ("Zodiac," "About Schmidt," "Longtime Companion") to help counterbalance the studio fluff ("My Best Friend's Wedding," "Big Miracle"), building a filmography that's not especially impressive, but consistently interesting, with varied performances to match. "Love, Wedding, Marriage" is Mulroney's directorial debut, which typically promises a least a modicum of creative control, spending time calling the shots, shaping a picture with a sense of purpose. What Mulroney actually issues here is a painfully bland romantic comedy about a trampled-upon marital subject that's common fodder for unimaginative screenwriters searching for a way to connect with their audience. Human behavior is in limited supply, along with a sense of humor, feeling performances, and a unique location (New Orleans, the current rage in film production). "Love, Wedding, Marriage" is as generic as they come, with a terrible sense of warmth and a flat read of conflict. If anything, the effort confirms that Mulroney is the type of guy who would walk into a Baskin-Robbins and order a single scoop of vanilla in a cup, passing on a myriad of flavors and possibilities to keep the experience as familiar as possible.
After a loving courtship, marriage counselor Ava (Mandy Moore) and winery owner Charlie (Kellan Lutz) are eager to head down the aisle, with the bride's dream of matrimonial bliss fueled by the seemingly sweet relationship shared between her parents, Betty (Jane Seymour) and Bradley (James Brolin). Settling into life together with the newlywed mood covering for all flare-ups in cohabitational irritations, Ava and Charlie soon find their union disrupted by Betty and Bradley's announcement of divorce, separating after three decades of marriage for reasons that aren't immediately clear. Sharing the shock with party girl sister Shelby (Jessica Szohr), Ava snaps into professional mode, hoping to coach her parents back into a healthy relationship, failing to grasp the divide between the couple as they split up and take residence with their children. Used to a clinical look at romance and her own fairy tale aspirations, Ava is stunned to learn more about her father's past indiscretions and Charlie's secretive link to another woman, left to process the disorder and the curious presence of a delivery boy (Richard Reid) who's hanging around Bradley. Sifting through the marital wreckage, Ava comes to understand the true meaning of commitment, using good old-fashioned honesty to understand the urge toward divorce, while engaging in deceptive means to induce a little sympathy between Bradley and Betty.
The screenplay for "Love, Wedding, Marriage" is credited to Anouska Chydzik Bryson (a member of the Chydzik Media Group, whose web address is pasted under the title during the end credits -- a new one to me) and Caprice Crane, and these two are as much to blame for the boredom of the picture as Mulroney. Sensing moviegoers haven't seen enough of idyllic couples watching the foundation of their dreams detonated by the realities of domestic partnership, the women cook up a wildly cliched piece of writing, fearful of challenging the viewer with authentic areas of emotional upheaval and martial dysfunction. Instead of genuine interest in the stress of living together, Bryson and Crane speed into a brutal sitcom direction, making Charlie a heavily-abbed dreamboat with a cush job who never replaces the toilet paper in the bathroom, while Ava's the genius worried about maintaining her daily profession of love for her husband. Even the parental divorce is treated as routine, finding Betty and Bradley breaking up over infidelities that occurred 25 years earlier, leaving the twosome upset but not above a quick reconciliation.
It's not that "Love, Wedding, Marriage" should be a Bergman film, but something chewier would've been appreciated. Instead, the script works through hacky setbacks and feeble battle plans, including Ava's scheme to report her sleeping father as an attempted suicide to help revitalize her mother's sympathies -- an especially ghoulish concept for humor and heart-mending that plays about as comfortably as it sounds. A few subplots also touch on the variables of marriage, meeting Gerber (Michael Weston), Charlie's frugal pal who hastily weds a Polish model to keep the woman in the country legally, with their easygoing relationship confounding Ava and her passion for lifelong storybook commitments. Time with Bradley touches on odd behavior as well, with his pronounced dedication to Judaism brought to the forefront for reasons that aren't especially clear, while the mystery surrounding Reid's character isn't fleshed out enough to matter in the long run, with early hints of a homosexual awakening for Ava's father left with only the faintest sense of mischief. The reality of the situation is far more conventional.
Performances aren't terribly convincing, with Lutz a blank slate as Charlie works through mounting sexual frustration as his wife channels her energy into the lives of others. Moore is expectedly bright as sunlight as Ava, with any sense of genuine displeasure left on the surface as the actress mugs her way through the picture. Enjoyable performers such as Seymour and Brolin are left with little to do besides massage silly business to the best of their ability, winding through dreary speed dating and karaoke sequences without losing too much dignity. A few familiar faces pop up to flavor the feature, including Christopher Lloyd as a hippy-dippy marriage counselor who believes in the power of hopping before a session, Alyson Hannigan as one of Ava's patients, and Colleen Camp as spirited doctor who believes in the power of physical challenges to help a couple rediscover their partnership. And for those who enjoy the peculiarities of film production, Julia Roberts provides a voice cameo as Ava's own therapist, possibly clearing a debt to her "My Best Friend's Wedding" co-star.
The AVC encoded image presentation (2.40:1 aspect ratio) carries a distinctly HD-shot appearance, with a flat look that changes in image intensity from scene to scene. Mostly, it's an adequate viewing experience with a nice range colors to inspect, finding the most vibrant reds and blues emerging from bold costumes, while the general cinematographic experience favors a more golden appearance that's preserved on the BD. Evening situations tend to solidify black levels, pulling texture out of hair and fabrics. Detail is satisfactory, delivering strong, layered particulars on facial close-ups, while interiors retain their decorative appeal. Skintones remain natural.
The 5.1 DTS-HD sound mix is generally as unadventurous as the visuals, though the essentials are cared for to satisfaction. Surrounds are generally calm, employed primarily to expand soundtrack selections, which sound purposeful and clean, and encourage outdoor atmospherics, with wind and party elements detected. Voices are crisp and easily sorted in the front stage, finding comedic speeds and emotional outbursts easily understood without distortion. Scoring is mild but supportive, never intruding on the dialog exchanges. Low-end is non-existent. It's primarily a frontal listening experience, keeping a low-profile with a stable but unremarkable presence.
Mulroney delivers a zombified picture, showing little to no command over the impossibly dull material, going through the motions to survive his debut as a filmmaker. There's no personality shining behind the camera, no command of the formula that could bring the viewing experience to life is some interesting way. He's created a lifeless romantic comedy, slavish to the worst instincts of the genre, while failing to recognize the general listlessness of the writing. It's a directorial endeavor that has no direction, forcing the viewer to slog through a predictable, unfunny, unrealistic exploration of marriage and its intricate demands of patience, trust, and love.
MPI and IFC Films have announced the Blu-ray release of the 2011 romantic comedy, Love Wedding Marriage. The film, which marks the directorial debut of actor Dermot Mulroney, stars Mandy Moore as a newly married counselor who must work to save her parents' marriage. ...
