The Wilde Wedding

The best thing about this movie is a slight scent of nostalgia for Malkovich and Close as young actors. They worked together in the memorable Dangerous Liaisons and they're best remembered in that masterpiece.

However, time passes by so quickly and in this film Close plays Eve, a big, pluri-divorced movie star, while Malkovich is Laurence, her first husband and a slight caricature of himself, as a famous theatre actor with bigger professional reputation, but not Eve's fame or money. They both are good and so is Patrick Stewart, the British would be fifth husband.

Gathering to Eve's house before the wedding, these older characters acknowledge that their life is drawing to a close and they must find a way to deal with the dwindling time they have left.

Unfortunately, philosophical speculation is just a short interlude in a plot filled with too many characters. Coming to the wedding are Eve and Laurence's three grown-up sons, all single or divorced, their children, one ex-wife, plus the groom's two daughters and a truckload of young, half-naked female friends and lesbian lovers.

Most of the plot feels like a nightmare where you forget the name of the people they've just introduced and their relations to each other, while all the characters seem busy having casual sex with each other.

Probably that's the way it goes in the world of rockstars, famous novelist and movie stars, but that doesn't necessarily make a good movie. Shame about the mediocre script that suffocates Malkovich and Close's performances.

This film tells the story of a seasoned actress, who is remarrying a man. Their families and ex spouses all converge for a weekend of wedding events, but things do not turn out as planned.

As with any film work a big cast and many characters, it is hard to develop all the characters and make people care about them. In here it is the same, the first hour basically it's a collage of one minute scenes of things that a character does. Sometimes I don't even know who that character is, so these characters become empty vessels that deliver a certain line or a joke.

Fortunately, the story gets better after it focuses on John Malkovich. I predicted the ending, but it still is a happy, heart warming ending that brings a smile to my face.

I read some of the previous reviews of this movie but - being a fan of the three stars - my husband and I decided to watch it last evening anyway. It was a shame that the basic premise (former movie star Eve/Glenn getting married for 4th time to writer Harold/Patrick while 1st husband Laurence/John is present as a friend of his ex-wife). Nice little premise that moves predictably through the script.

However, at least two of Eve's and Laurence's 3 adult son's plus their significant others and children and one of Harold's 2 adult daughters could have been eliminated from the picture all together as contributing nothing to the main plot but just adding to the movie's (and this viewer's) confusion.

Someone needed to take a red pen to this script before it began filming so that the focus would be where it belonged - on exploring the complicated relationship of Eve/Harold/Laurence and let these powerful stars shine instead of being relegated to bemused bystanders within their own storyline.

Some great talent in this film, beginning, at the top, with Glenn Close. Unfortunately, the plot hangs on John Malkovich, and, for me, there was no reason to get behind a positive outcome that includes his character. Back to the great cast, though, the young cast were superb (Bridgette Lundy-Paine and Grace Van Patten) with Minnie Driver and Patrick Stewart showing off their comedic chops. The premise was predictable (no matter how much I yelled at the screen, "No, not Malkovich!") but most of the time, the characters were drawn to be unappealing, vapid and uninteresting. So, all thing considered, I give this film a 6 (fair) out of 10. {Romantic Comedy}

If it weren't for Minnie Driver I would've been bored out of my skull. My take away is that the lives of actors are excruciatingly boring. The actors do their job well and act but it's just sad and tedious. If I could only submit 3 lines my review would be completed but apparently a good review must contain more content than is necessary...sorta like this movie.