Ceremony

One of the easiest to watch movies of recent memories. The movie has a slow start establishing Sam's character as an absolute jerk and his friend Marchall's character as a whiny hypochondriac. However, things pick up nicely when Uma Thurman (Zoe) comes on scene. Nothing like a major star like her to pick things up.

The setting is a gorgeous beach house on the ocean, with all the beautiful people partying for a weekend wedding - who doesn't love a wedding! Sam's character unfolds delightfully as his deeply romantic self comes to the fore. And Marshall proves to be a hero!

The boys learn about life and love and the pursuit of happiness through pain and suffering. The movie, thankfully, doesn't take the easy way out by tying things up with a bow, but leaves you with the sweetness of the mystery of life.

I honestly did not enjoy this film. I found it slow, boring and utterly hard to follow. It is listed as a comedy, I didn't laugh once. This film tried hard to be an "arty" type film but came off disjointed, bawdy, sleep inducing and even utterly unrelated in parts. The characters were hard to get into, they didn't "gel" with each other. The scenes do not flow and jump around quite a bit and don't relate to each other. The characters were not believable and did not draw you in. They don't mesh with each other or fully give you a full picture of the relationship between characters. The whole way through this film you are guessing at the plot, at why a scene is playing out the way it is, and what is really going on. It is very obscure, not made any easier with the whole different storyline going on with Uma's character's brother. That confuses the whole plot even more. I struggled on with this film purely because I thought it would get better, and particularly I will admit because Uma was listed in it and I had enjoyed her acting in the past.Save yourself the bother and don't bother pressing play. Sorry Uma but you have acted in far better then this!

Watchable romantic comedy stars the diminutive Angarano as Sam, the man with the plan to whisk his true love (Thurman) away from her fiancé (Pace), moments away from the altar. Unfortunately for Sam, Thurman's character has outgrown their once-brief tryst and sees stability and maturity in her imminent marriage, even if Pace is somewhat egotistical and high on self importance.

Not a lot happening here, with minor chuckles and melancholy moments the general tone, Thurman's towering height and obvious age, both dwarfing Angarano, who's seemingly behind the eight ball all the way. Thompson as his best friend begins to suspect a ruse when they're "inadvertantly" invited to the wedding, and the once strong friendship that has cooled over the years, serves as the film's dramatic baseline, not quite a bro-mance, but equally, something short of true romance. He also has a funny scene in which he naively pops a party pill with some amusing consequences.

Director Winkler never really seems to find the right tenor, lost amid light humour (predominantly from Johnson as Thurman's drug-addled brother) and pathos with little content to develop and only the natural appeal of Angarano and Thurman off which to pivot. Mature, low-key and likable but there's not a lot achieved (in my opinion the R-rating also seems excessive).

Uma Thurman was the SOLE REASON for renting this film--- none of the other actors are familiar to us, except for Michael Angarano (from The Forbidden Kingdom) in his first "adult" leading role!

The leads are competent, but you still wonder if the movie would have done better at the box office had Jesse Eisenberg hadn't backed out last minute (Angarano was supposed to play "Marshall", the sidekick).

Nevertheless, this movie reminded me of "Rushmore," even though the plot is more like "The Graduate." (If you've seen both movies, then you'll understand my analogy).

Max Winkler, son of The Fonz, has done a great job as a rookie director. He's got a great future ahead....

Finally, I have to say that Jake Johnson ("Teddy") really adds a "Hangover" dimension to this film, in a good way! He is only one of many quirky supporting characters who make this a lovable film....one you're likely to purchase rather than rent!

CEREMONY – CATCH IT ( B- ) Ceremony is a quirky little movie about young guy crashing the wedding of the woman he loves. The movie is smart, funny and full of good performances by the lead stars. Michael Angarano & Reece Thompson's bromance sold this out for me. Their scenes have very dark humor to it. Michael Angarano hopelessly in love is something to see, he brings the madness to the movie. Uma Thurman after Kill Bill did something decent enough otherwise it's been long time she has appeared in something not mediocre. Lee Pace is weird and out of his box. The movie is quirky & funny but lacks big time in screenplay. The whole time story just stays from where it started. To be honest nothing change till the very last moment, and even in last moment you've to imagine that that's how it will end. Sometimes, I wanted to see big jumps or shocking twists in the screenplay, but it never happened so the whole time it stays on the same note from where it all started. Anyways, I won't say it was boring but I think it has the potential to be lot funnier. Overall, watch for its performances and overall vibe, it's enjoyable.