
Recently, a number of expensive destination wedding romantic comedies have been a pattern. Consider “Ticket to Paradise” with George Clooney and Julia Roberts or Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel. Two years recently, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell through “Anyone But You” received widespread acclaim and made a considerable box office profit. It was only a matter of time before a watered-down version came to Netflix. May I introduce you to the new film “Mother of the Bride”, featuring Brooke Shields, Miranda Cosgrove, and Benjamin Bratt? It picks up fragments from better films. Then, it combines them with poorly developed characters and creates a film that should never see the light of the day.
Usually, I appreciate the projects created by Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler who work for the Motion Picture Corporation of America and Netflix. I have seen “The Knight Before Christmas” and “A Castle for Christmas” (which featured Shields as well) probably as many times as I should not admit I did. I have also written nice things in regard to “Falling for Christmas” and “Irish Wish” starring Lindsay Lohan right here on this site. Mark Waters has a pretty good record in this category, directing such attractions as the original “Mean Girls,” “Freaky Friday,” and “Just Like Heaven”. Even his failures such as “Head over Heels” or “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” can be referred to as my guilty pleasures.
What specifically went south in this case? The stale script of Robin Bernheim, who has not written anything compelling since the Netflix “The Princess Switch” trilogy, leaves the film’s actors shivering in the cold.
Stepping into the lenses is Shields as Lana, a leading international geneticist with some romantic scars. She has mastered this slightly neurotic, screwball comedy vein that she developed since her ‘Suddenly Susan’ sitcom days. Emotions take over when it is revealed to Lana that her daughter Emma (played by the terribly bland Miranda Cosgrove) is engaged to RJ (Sean Teale) who is actually the son of Will (Benjamin Bratt, now tragically drained of his dazzling charm), who broke Lana’s heart in college. Rachael Harris plays Lana’s sister where the only thing she does is act like a sex-crazed older woman, and even at some points the Cynthia-styled character portrays a muscular Chad Michael Murray as a “Hemsworth hottie.” Michael McDonald and Wilson Cruz are the couple who are ‘token’ gay men who are married in the film and who are brought in for comic relief and to move the story along.
Emma is a lifestyle influencer who has signed a contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with a corporation for which she has essentially packaged her wedding to market it at their Phuket Resort Thailand.
As the public enjoys viewing all the pictures and nearly the fittings of designer dresses for photo shoots and ‘looks’ subtended in the film, the documentary never examines the economics at play. What should have been a spectacular scathing attack on commercialization and commodification of our lives, including those superficial moments in life that are supposed to be the most special and signified, reduces itself to a weak story on work/life balance. Its weakness on this theme is so basic that “27 Dresses” appears to be so glaringly a lesson. Only Tasneem Roc seems to find some unrehearsed humor in playing the role of Camala, an obsessed and distressed brand manager, but unfortunately don’t get enough exposure that makes the film enjoyable.
So, as you might have noticed, I restrained myself from even referencing the groom all this time. That’s because he might as well not be the one in this film. He is such a minor and undeveloped character that he resembles those Instagram boyfriends who take pictures of their influencer girlfriends while their faces are nowhere to be seen. Only even those photos do not exist in his case! Some vague dialogue at the start narrates what he does, how he met Emma, and how they fell in love. Even still, this is so irrelevant by the time the wedding takes place that you not only forget who is actually getting married but also the reason why that marriage is taking place in the first, What do they even find in each other? What kind of business does he do? If he has a dad who is rich enough to buy them a multi-million dollar condo in Tribeca, why did they first meet and get ‘mutually’ attracted at the workplace in London? Some script, other than the stock characters ought to be able to address these questions.
Or maybe a movie as dumb as this is the one that this particular sub-genre deserves considering how all these movies (including the ones I love) have been so blissfully ignorant of the ridiculous wealth one must possess in the first place in order to just be in even a destination wedding.
Perhaps, in a strange sense, the film’s emptiness is a criticism all in itself.
It’s unfortunate to watch such a gifted artist as Shields end up in such a pile of muck. In the end, “Mother of the Bride” is the lowest point for nearly everyone participating.
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