The Big Wedding (2013) User Reviews

Building an entire wedding movie around sex jokes, but adds in some well-timed honest family drama

[napierslogs · 6/10 · 26 April 2013]

"The Big Wedding" seems to be following in the footsteps of the recent Hollywood romantic comedies – gather as many big name stars as you can and put them all in a romantic comedy storyline. It's the best of the bunch, even though that's not saying anything at all. It's also based on a French film "Mon frère se marie", and that's not really saying all that much either.

Any description of the plot is just going to read as a listing of who's who of Hollywood. But let's do it anyways: We have the patriarch and matriarchs (Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon); we have the up-and-comers excited for their big day (Ben Barnes and Amanda Seyfried); and then we have the middle siblings who have had their time in the spotlight and are starting to fade away (Topher Grace and Katherine Heigl).

The wedding revolves around lies (obviously) and religion - with Robin Williams as the drunken Catholic priest. And it also includes lots and lots of sex jokes. The surprising thing that audiences are taking away from this film, especially in spite of the decidedly negative critics' responses, is that it is hilarious. Fans of the film will find themselves laughing from beginning to end. But to give you fair warning, all of the jokes are sexually-based, and I mean all of them.

Laughing at the Catholic stigma of don't have sex but if you do, don't be safe; laughing at people who have too much sex; laughing at people who don't have sex; and worse of all, laughing at divorced and married couples who have sex with one another. While some of the jokes were funny, they're also responsible for creating the uneasy dynamic amongst the characters – all of whom are family (or, at least, are about to become in-laws). At times the film crosses the line from funny dysfunctional family to repulsive dysfunctional family.

The one line that "The Big Wedding" straddles well is that between comedy and drama. The film is effective when it moves from funny jokes to touching family honesty and back to some more funny jokes. The story lines are very predictable, and sometimes the jokes are too simple and too wrong, but it tries to add in the right amount of drama, and ultimately, it should be entertaining to fans of the genre.

Just big enough.

[Quietb-1 · 6/10 · 26 April 2013]

The wedding is small. The cast is big. Great performances all around. Exactly what you expect from these seasoned professionals. They seemed to be having a good time.

A sitcom premise, adds some nudity and language to lift it to movie worthy. A great opening set piece with the three major stars. If you talk on a diving board is there any doubt your going into the pool?

Beautiful photography of a beautiful setting. A good score helps too.

It may not be the best of the "wedding comedy genre", but it is an entertaining, feel good movie. It is always good to see a family more messed up then your own. Eat some popcorn and enjoy the show.

The Big Feel Good

[rogus2006 · 7/10 · 10 September 2020]

Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Robert DeNiro, and the late Robin Williams are marvelous in their roles and still "got it going on" to make you feel good. There are only a couple issues with The Big Wedding, written and directed by Justin Zackhman. For example, this movie is a big "white" in set-decoration and characters. The story does include about 25% diversity with Latino characters but sadly, no authentic Latino actors. It's not that they didn't try. An important character to the story is the adopted son Alejandro who was born in Columbia (real life British actor, Ben Barnes) and his biological mother from Columbia (Patricia Rae, US born and Columbian descent) & sister from Columbia (Ana Ayora, US born and Miami native). Patricia Rae is the closest we get to actor diversity. If you can forget all that, the issues raised in the story connect well with the audience because the sexuality is real, and the characters are believable - outlandish at times - but believable. My only other issue is that one scene is out of order after an intimate event between the DeNiro & Keaton characters. The next morning, the couple presents Alajandro with a meaningful wedding gift that began a long time ago and connects them emotionally. Th gift is the soul of the movie and no doubt will inspire real-life engaged couples to replicate. The problem with this scene is the next time we see DeNiro is at the wedding where he obviously fell-off-the-wagon. Wait, he was fine that morning and suddenly he's tormented. It's too much of an emotional shift, isn't it? The abrupt emotional shift within only a few hours could, but probably wouldn't happen in real life. Isn't it better that the DeNiro & Keaton's characters present the gift to Alajandro, go to the rehearsal dinner, have the sexual conflict, and then be tormented playout better logically? None the less, Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia, 2008), Topher Grace (That 70s Show) and Kyle Bornheimer (Marriage Story) help make the story come alive. Feel good endings are more important than ever because of the current pandemic, wildfires, inequality, and political climate. And The Big Wedding delivers a good ending. My husband and I laughed throughout the movie and we liked the happy, feel good ending that includes all the characters. With my husband related to the family values, issues raised, characters, actors, and the story and we wish there were more stories with this demographic appeal, but with diverse actors as well as characters. Shamelessly I will add that The Big Wedding reminds me of a Screenplay I wrote with Sarandon and Keaton in mind - in my dreams, I know. We watched on Netflix; September 8, 2020.

The Big Trash

[Chrysanthepop · 17 August 2014]

Given the premise (deduced from the trailer) and the title I was thinking of skipping 'The Big Wedding' but it's got Hollywood's finest actors like Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton and Robert de Niro. Surely, the film is at least worth a watch for their performance, right? Well, a more appropriate title for the movie would have been 'The Big Disaster In the Name of a Movie'. Yes, it's messy, silly and...not funny. 'the Big Wedding' was sold as a romantic comedy wedding flick but the 'jokes' appear forced, desperate and lack originality. Moreover it pokes fun at Catholics, free spirited people and divorced couples. The aforementioned talented actors are wasted which is a real shame. The younger cast's performance ranges from average to poor. The set and outdoor sceneries provide some nice eye-candy. Loaded with clichés, pretending to be funny and wasting talents, this expensive film is kind of...well, trash.

Awkward with a capital A

[crossroadsxdemon · 6/10 · 30 April 2013]

Over all the movie was a bit of a disappointment even though I've been looking forward to seeing it for quite some time (Not for the big A- list case either), Rather I was looking forward to seeing the Talents of Ben Barnes back on the big screen. I wasn't disappointed in that regard. His portrayal of Alejandro was brilliant, his American accent was exact and his Spanish was impressive as well. I thought Al and Missy were adorable, but the movie itself had way too much going on. Just when you thought the story line couldn't get any crazier something stupider happened and by the end it was hard to keep everything that was going on straight. It had endearing and sweet family moments that were really it's only saving grace. If you had cut out half the random story lines and the random awkward sexual parts that...for the record did not add to the plot line, it would have been a great movie but as usual a potentially good film is ruined with crude comedy. That being said some of the story lines that had been supplemented by crude comedy were amusing story lines but were sort of ruined.

movie did its job....made me laugh!!!

[flitz35 · 7/10 · 31 July 2013]

I won't talk much about the plot ( which there was one) but what I will say is first the performances. Deniro was hysterical I can't remember the last ti.e I laughed so hard.

Before watching this movie I wasn't expecting much based on the reviews. I have come to the conclusion that critics have greasy palms and if there forgot About then your movie will be trashed. Its sad just a fact of life.

So the bottom line is this is not a waste of 90 minutes. Cool story, great acting and keeps your I interest the entire time. Ignore the critics on this one someone forgot to pay them.

What a waste of actors' and viewers' time!

[derza77 · 2/10 · 29 April 2013]

My wife suggested we go see this movie, after all, you have to work really hard to spoil something with De Niro, Keaton and Robin Williams in it, right?

Well, apparently not. Just throw together a completely meaningless plot, fill it with a couple awkward sexual scenes, remove any hint of real feeling or nuance, and then fill what's left with numerous clichés that are worthy of a B porno flick - and you will get some idea of what "The Big Wedding" is like.

It's another one in the long and sadly ever-growing line of Hollywood fiascoes, built on the premise that it's enough to throw together a bunch of star actors to get a blockbuster. It's not. The feeling you get is that the film's budget was spent on securing the big hitters, and then a couple of hundred bucks that were left were given to some sex-obsessed teenager in high school, to write the plot.

As a result, this movie which claims to be a comedy, is a farce, a farce of what a comedy should be. After watching for a little over an hour, I left without finishing it. It was super boring, predictable and entirely unimpressive. Don't waste your time watching this grotesque concoction of nothing.

Really good!!

[karenplus · 7/10 · 1 July 2019]

After reading the reviews I was hesitant to watch but ultimately the cast led me to it. This is a wonderful feel good movie!!

More Like a Sitcom, and A Bad One

[SeamusMacDuff · 3/10 · 26 January 2014]

Most of the other reviews are spot on. Get a bunch of big name stars plus some up and comers, throw them all together in a worn-out plot device of a wedding with lots of family issues, throw consistency and logic out the window, and hope for the best.

Deniro and Keaton play long divorced spouses whose adopted son Barnes is marrying the daughter Seyfired of a stuck-up family. Sarandon is Deniro's long-time live-in mistress who's catering the reception. Williams is a drunken, but conservative priest throwing out one-liners. Daughter Heigl just broke up and turns out to be pregnant. Son Grace is a 30-year old who you just know is going to fall for his step-brother's hot sister, who's visiting with his non-English speaking birth mother that everyone bends over backwards for for some reason, like Keaton and Deniro pretending they're still married. Everyone involved is horny beyond belief so sex is the main topic. That's the plot, if there is one. This is one hot mess.

Actually, there are a few laughs in this movie if raunch is for you.

Overshadowed by Pain & Gain. Was a solid film.

[naregian · 7/10 · 27 April 2013]

The potential was definitely not reached in this film. The script had some lightly sophisticated humor but didn't include as much wit as it could have been successful with. It was a pretty light R rated film, carrying a few sexual jokes and scenes, and a few F bombs. Much of the humor was based on sexual dialog, which might've been okay but it didn't carry any depth, and just had somewhat lame sex jokes.

By no means was this a BAD movie, it really wasn't, but it could have been much better. The all-star cast did have some nice on screen chemistry and I liked the charm and wit brought on by the great young actors, namely Topher Grace. (I might be biased because I loved That 70s Show.)

I feel like the release of this film was very overshadowed by Pain & Gain, and the marketing and promotion of THIS movie was no where near enough.

One thing this film did get right was the trailer. It revealed just enough for you to be intrigued, yet not feel like you know the whole film, so if you think the trailer revealed the whole movie, go ahead and see it and you might be pleasantly surprised. It wasn't bad, but wasn't anything special.

The stars can't save it

[pacificboy · 2/10 · 16 August 2013]

As a fan of four key people in the cast (De Niro, Keaton, Williams, Sarandon), it was pretty much a given that I was going to see this, even if the ads told me that I was destined for a rough ride.

There was a certain stripe of made-for-TV movie in the 1980s and early 90s, movies with titles like "Crash Course" and "Baby of the Bride." They featured casts bursting with stars of all the then-hot series (Jackee, Rue McClanahan, etc.) and wacky premises (a wacky driver's ed school! a pregnant old woman!) and were just as terrible as they looked in the ads. "The Big Wedding," from its title to its awful script, is just the big-screen version of one of those disposable made-for-TV clunkers. The only thing setting it apart is the caliber of star they managed to get for this crapfest and the "sexual" situations involved in some of the plot. Even De Niro's raunchy dialogue seems forced, as if the filmmakers were desperate to set their movie apart from bad TV movies.

That said, I expected that at least the cast would make it worthwhile. I mean, we've all watched movies just for the cast, or seen otherwise lousy movies that were redeemed to some degree by a favorite actor. None of that is the case here. De Niro's been phoning it in for the last decade or so, and this is no exception. Keaton plays the same role she's been playing since "Something's Gotta Give" put her back on the radar. Sarandon acquits herself. But worst of all is Williams, who has less than five minutes on screen in a part anyone could've played. It actually feels as if he was directed NOT to ad lib or have any fun with the role. It's an extended cameo that he could've made shine, but there is NO "Robin Williamsness" in his performance. Overall, no one in the main cast performs with any personality.

In short, don't see it unless you're completing your checklist of one of the main stars' filmographies. And even then, be prepared to be sorely disappointed.

A very funny film but not for the prudish

[david_kravitz · 8/10 · 29 April 2013]

I do not understand the rating of 5.4 (at the time of writing) nor the very poor review of one of the contributors. My partner and I saw this film last night and found it one of the funniest films in years. And, judging by the laughter, most of the audience agree. Bear in mind that for a majority of the audience English is not their first language either.

A word of caution for prudes. There are three scenes of a highly sexual nature that are extremely funny for those who are not.

This is another in the growing trend of using mature actors and it is good to see Diane Keaton and Susan Sarendon in starring roles where some years back they would have disappeared from our screens. Robert De Niro is excellent, as ever and Robin Williams in the smaller part of the quartet of Oscar winners, made this a foursome of very funny performances.

The rest of the cast also turned in fine performances and I think they must have had lots of fun making the film. We go to the cinema for one reason only - to be entertained. I heard no complaints from the rest of the audience as we left. No Oscar winners here but high marks for fun.

The scenery is also quite magnificent.

How to cheat love & other bad habits

[NestorTheGreat · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

All-Star cast vying for spotlight in this zany, based on a French film, amalgamation of everything you should not do in a committed relationship. A whole 'do what I say not what I do' subplot, and a 30-year-old virgin meets a latina nymph sub-subplot, really makes this a mixed bag of goodies. Many funny moments overshadowed by cringe-worthy ones with a dabble of drama makes the film watchable, yet not very memorable.

Predictable, vulgar and nasty

[silver-starlet · 1/10 · 8 April 2014]

I watched this movie hoping for something with the charm of "Father of the Bride" and the humor from "Something's Gotta Give." Instead I got the raunchiness of "American Pie" mixed with the look of a Hallmark movie. Horrendous script, unlikable characters, several plot holes and it just didn't make me feel good at all. Thank goodness it was only 89 minutes. Literally everything I predicted in the movie in the first 20 minutes happened. I'm not even kidding you, it's true. That's how lazy, predictable and dull the plot in this movie is. I enjoy a chick flick every now and then because they give me that warm, fuzzy feeling. This made me feel like I was in a high school locker room. "Let's cheat on our spouses and talk about our sex lives to our kids and in-laws! Yeah! Nothing weird about that!" Nasty, vulgar dialogue, domestic abuse, and stale jokes. I detest this movie. The only decent thing about it was its cinematography.

Great Cast but Watered Down Screenplay

[Michael_Elliott · 26 April 2013]

The Big Wedding (2013)

** (out of 4)

An all-star cast does what they can for this romantic comedy but sadly it's not nearly enough. Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton play a former married couple who finds their adopted son about to be married. The only problem is that his real mother is very strict and wouldn't approve of his in-laws not being married so the two plan to pretend that they're still married, which causes trouble with the father's girlfriend (Susan Sarandon). THE BIG WEDDING features not only those three Oscar-winners but we've also got Robin Williams playing a priest and the supporting cast includes the likes of Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried and Topher Grace. With that cast it seems like we'd have something special here but that's not the case because the screenplay is just too silly, tame and boring for it to work. I love the cast and they helped keep me interested in the movie but they simply don't have anything to work with, which then begs the question as to why they agreed to be in it. The problem is that the screenplay gives us so many "stories" going on and none of them are all that interesting. You have love triangles, pregnancy issues, virgin issues, speaking issues and countless other family issues and none of them are funny. You have jokes aimed at Catholics and various sex jokes but these to are unfunny. The film tries to be somewhat raunchy but even these jokes are just too tame to work and especially in this current state of raunchy comedies. There are a few funny moments throughout and it's usually the cast member's charm that is making it. The cast members do what they can but no one here is delivering Oscar-worthy performances. Seeing DeNiro, Keaton and Sarandon acting together is fun but one really wishes the material had been better. Heigl adds nothing to the film and even Seyfried and Grace are pretty much given nothing to do but stand in the background. THE BIG WEDDING has a big cast but very little else. At best this is for fans of the cast members but even them will just want to save this for a very cheap ticket or a free rental.

Nowhere near as bad as it is made out to be

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 31 May 2013]

Don and Ellie have three children, lawyer daughter Lyla, doctor son Jared, and adopted son Alejandro. They have been divorced for 10 years, and Don and Bebe (once Ellie's best friend) are hosting Alejandro's wedding to Missy. Alejandro, still in contact with the mother in Colombia who voluntarily gave him up for adoption so that he would have a better life, tells his (three) parents that his mother, who is coming to the wedding, is a staunch Catholic who will be desperately distressed if she knows he has been brought up in a household where the sin of divorce underpins everything, so can Don and Ellie please pretend they are still married?

This is the main premise of an ensemble film which is based on a French original. It boasts a stellar cast, and I'm going to buck the trend by saying that I liked it quite a lot. It follows the modern trend of a tendency towards sexual explicitness and bad language in the dialogue (the film opens with a squirm-worthy sequence involving Robert DeNiro and Susan Sarandon being interrupted during oral sex), but I enjoyed the various subplots and I liked most of the characters - they were quite good company.

Robert DeNiro as Don does tend to coast a little, but Susan Sarandon in particular is very sympathetic, and I enjoyed all the performances - Topher Grace has a nice line in gentle sarcasm, and I have - as I have a tendency to do - fallen completely in lust with Ana Ayora who plays the sister nobody knew Alejando had, and who presents a very compelling argument in favour of skinny-dipping.

This is not a great film by any means, but it is gently enjoyable, and far from being as bad as it is made out to be.

Fun

[HabibieHakim123 · 7/10 · 17 July 2020]

"It's a fun movie, I really enjoying it, Robert De Niro is pretty good and funny, and who makes this movie is better is Robin Williams even he scene is not to much he is the man who will always funny and entertaining"

We should have known better

[jordan2240 · 3/10 · 28 April 2013]

'Valentines Day,' 'New Year's Eve,' 'Love Actually,' etc. etc., all movies with 'stellar' casts that were barely watchable. Well, this one tops even those. Absolutely horrendous script that had my wife chuckling a few times but me wondering when this tripe would end. I can't imagine how embarrassed the performers would be if they were forced to sit and watch it. I honestly don't know how movies like this get made, especially with such casts. The only thing I can think of is that it gives the actors a quick payday without having to work very hard, so who can blame them really. I'm glad we went to the cheap matinée.

In short, the jokes are all sex-related and not funny, many of the lines seem to have been bad ad-libs, one character speaks in subtitles in a poor attempt to add sophistication to the movie (and she's very annoying at that), and you couldn't care less what happens to any of the characters. Oh, and it has Amanda Seyfried and Kathryn Heigle, who's tracks to stardom are proof that God exists.

If you're reading this after the fact, I feel your pain.

The Big Wedding — Get swept up in this rich improbable tale

[AvidClimber · 7/10 · 21 May 2013]

The Big Wedding a cavalcade of stories in one big event.

The good. Lots of things happening. Intricate and fascinating scenario. Well detailed scenes and sets. Funny dialogs and characters. Very slick and polished.

The actors. A star studded cast. Difficult to wreck a production with so much talent. My favorites: Topher Grace and Katherine Heigl.

The bad. Too many closing of loops at the end. However, I don't know what I would have cut. It's nice as is, but the value of the film is just diminished by such neat finish. The husband of Heigl's character is really lame.

The ugly. The lesbian thing was just badly done. A "fetish"? Really? Isn't she more like bisexual? Whatever, it was probably put together by somebody with a conservative view on the subject. Also, the final reveal on the part of the biological mother: totally unnecessary.

The result. A light flick with high value entertainment. There's something for almost everyone. I recommend it.

Ouch!

[Mat_Nichol · 1/10 · 28 August 2018]

Painful to watch great actors going through the motions of this awful screenplay. Spoiler alert - it's not funny and doesn't get funny.

Not the best, but a decent comedy :)

[chris_smir · 7/10 · 19 March 2019]

I really do not understand the low scoring. I just watched it and even if it wasn't the best comedy I even seen, it was good enough to make me laugh, and in general have a good evening sitting on my sofa and having my wine. The story is very simple and predictable, but who cares. All I want from a romance comedy is to have some good time and I had it.

101 Introduction to Mainstream Movie Clichés

[estebangonzalez10 · 2/10 · 17 August 2013]

"Would somebody just punch me in the face again?"

The best thing I can say about The Big Wedding is that it is only 80 minutes long. If it were 10 minutes longer I don't think I could've made it through the entire thing because it is such a forceful mess with clichés thrown all over the place. At least in other mainstream romantic comedies you have a main story that reaches its conclusion nicely wrapped up with a beautiful ribbon on top, but here you have like five different conflictive stories that magically reach their resolution in less than 10 minutes. Not even Houdini could pull off a trick like that. The entire film focuses on this one messed up family where each member is going through some difficult moment in their relationship and after hearing them ramble for 70 minutes they all peacefully find their resolution and live happily ever after. The Big Wedding is class 101 in Introduction to Mainstream Movie Clichés. What made things even worse is that director Justin Zackham (whose major film credit is writing the screenplay for The Bucket List) had an all-star cast to work with here and none of the characters felt like a real human being. Everyone played a one dimensional and stereotypical character. This is one of the laziest and most shameful movies of the year and I doubt many people will enjoy this "comedy."

Alejandro (Ben Barnes) and Missy (Amanda Seyfried) are a young couple preparing for their big wedding, which means that Alejandro's dysfunctional family has to come together for this special occasion. Alejandro was adopted and raised by Don (Robert de Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) until they were divorced and Don's mistress, Bebe (Susan Surandon), moved in. Don and Ellie had two other children prior to adopting Alejandro: Lyla (Katherine Heigl) and Jared (Topher Grace). Apparently after their divorce Ellie abandoned the country and Lyla broke ties with her father. Now 10 years later everyone gets together for Alejandro's marriage. The only problem is that Alejandro has always kept close ties with his real mother from Colombia, Madonna (Patricia Rae), a devout Catholic who disapproves of divorce and therefor he has never told her anything about his adoptive parents separation. He asks Ellie and Don to act like a married couple and that pretty much leaves Bebe out of the picture thus creating a bit of chaos and building tension along the way.

There isn't anything nice I can say about this movie so I will keep my review short. There are several other stories and things going on in this film that barely get touched on the surface or are simply used as a gag and not dealt with. Robin Williams plays the priest who is going to marry the couple (we've seen him play this same role in the past). Alejandro is not a catholic and doesn't want to lie to the priest about his beliefs because he doesn't think it would be right, but on the other hand he is capable of lying to his mother about his adoptive parents. I had an issue accepting this and I guess it was a main concern because at one point this is addressed in the film, but it is resolved rather lazily like pretty much every conflict that arose in the film. Everything just felt so fake that it was hard to really identify with any of the characters because none of them played a real human being. This isn't the way conflicts are resolved. Nothing about this film is recommendable, and what makes matters even worse is that such a talented cast was put to waste with this terrible screenplay. The Big Wedding is one of the worst films of 2013.

Underrated movie !

[naiksourab · 8/10 · 20 July 2020]

This movie completely has a happy and funny tone maintained. Ending is also very sweet , do watch this if feeling low . Family love is highlighted in this movie .

Fun, with a twist

[fernandodelamadrid · 7/10 · 9 February 2019]

I honestly believe most of the reviews for this movie are missing the point. It seems people dislike this movie because they found it not-funny and somehow offensive. I strongly disagree. It is a nice story about people, who have real feelings, contradictions; people who makes mistakes, and have to come to terms with that. It is a fun movie, if you are willing to laugh at yourself. It's even great at times, if you can enjoy the irony of life. It is NOT a typical Hollywood comedy, it feels more like a british movie at times. It doesn't play for the big laughs, it doesn't go for the over-the-top performances. You won't get Robin Williams' comedic faces, or DeNiro's eyebrow trick. It's just a fun, enjoyable story about people.

Spoiled selfish people on display

[diana-51 · 1/10 · 17 August 2013]

Really, who cares? These people have everything and nothing makes them happy. Beauty, wealth, success and the inevitable large, beautiful house, and they are all nibbling at each other like sad hungry little shark babies. As many other reviewers here have said, it is inconceivable that these great actors took these parts. Didn't any of them say to their agent, This is shallow and I'll have none of it....? It is dispiriting to see so much talent, and money, wasted on a piece of work that has so little value to the world. I heard a lot about this movie being targeted to the Boomer generation. I am of that generation, and the stories we have to tell, with a lifetime of experience, love, and loss, are infinitely more important, complex and interesting than this paper-thin film.