Polish Wedding

If 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' was 'Everybody Loves Raymond', then this was 'Married ... with Children'. In the Greek family, the bride was plain and overweight but made herself over, hoping to get a man before her biological clock ran out. In this movie, the bride looked hot even with a minimum of makeup ... though her mom looked like Kathie Lee Gifford and wore enough makeup for a much older profession than cleaning offices. The Greek family ran a restaurant. In this movie, the father worked nights in a bakery but it is never made clear whether he owned it. The Greek wedding was a major production involving hundreds of guests. The Polish wedding ... wasn't. I don't want to give away too much, but weapons were involved. I think they were baseball bats, but I'm not sure. The scene where those were used--that was memorable. I liked the performances of the actors playing the groom's parents, brief though they were.

Claire Danes did a wonderful job as the only daughter out of five children. She showed a real talent for sultry behavior, and her evil laugh early in the movie was something worth seeing. Lena Olin delivered an outstanding performance, effectively showing a wide variety of emotions, and her accent was beautiful. Gabriel Byrne had his moments as the father.

I had a hard time enjoying the movie, though, except when it was funny. Some of the humor was naughty, but that was okay. It seemed well done. The main problem with the movie was that there were good parts but nothing overall that made them fit together as a whole.

It was fun at times, anyway.

What the????

Why are these characters supposed to be Polish, and why does the story take place in the present? It seems to be located somewhere in the 50's or 60's in terms of its attitudes and characters. It seems to be located far from urban America in terms of the wacky behavior of its characters. I can't relate to it in any way.

Lena Olin gets my award for the worst accent in the history of film. What was she thinking of? You know, Lena, the reason Meryl Streep gets all those accents right is not just because she's talented (though she is), but because she studies every word, every nuance of the rhythm. What were you thinking of with those rolling Hungarian r's and those throat-clearing Yiddish "ch" sounds.

Why didn't they just make this a family of Potsylvanians living in Crovenia in some dimly-remembered post-war era, and none of this would have bothered me.

As for Gabriel Byrne, this usually talented actor obviously decided not to bother with the accent or the whole damned movie for that matter, and he called in his part. He obviously realized this was no Sophie's Choice, and he just collected his paycheck. In some scenes he used a heavy accent, sometimes a lighter one, sometimes none at all ... one of those Kevin Costner things. On the other hand, Byrne's relationship with his daughter (a capable Claire Danes) was the best part of the movie, although that isn't saying much.

I could only find one hint that the characters were actually Polish ... I think they mentioned Pierogi once.

Forget this turkey. It has a few good moments, but they aren't worth the effort.

When is this movie supposed to have taken place? I live in Detroit (or, ok, a suburb thereof) and this movie is definitely confused. First of all, Lena Olin wears a uniform for some meeting that looks like its from the 40's. The police car looks like its from the 70's. Gabriel Byrne's character acts like he's from the 50's and Clair Danes' promiscuous character is definitely suited to the 90's, with 80's hair.

The film was actually shot in a suburb quite a ways from Detroit that is known for having a large Polish community. That's about the only polish influence in the movie. Everything else is just horniness run amuck.

A horrible,pointless film in which the actors are way too good for the script, I was not surprised to see that the writer/director has done nothing else since. Let's hope her urge to create remains dormant and spares us another two-hours-of-my-life-that-i'll-never-get-back feeling.

I have recently spent ninety of the most painful minutes of my movie-viewing life watching a film called "Polish Wedding". Apparently, this film was supposed to be one of those warm-heated slice of life tales about a colorful ethnic family living and kvetching in big city USA. Detroit, from the looks of the place, but I can't be sure. Plotless, pointless, and ultimately offensive, this film is a disaster. The first ominous sign is the opening credits. No one in the cast and crew seemed to be remotely Polish. This movie features a Swede (Lena Olin, doing a bad Natasha Fatale accent) an Irishman (Gabriel Byrne,even worse) and a sickly-sweet all-American girl (Claire Danes, who should be barred from doing movies forever). Having lived in Chicago for several years, and having married a second generation Polish girl, I can honestly say that the characters in this film resemble no Poles that I have ever met. The "Poles" in this movie are the same lazy, drunken, selfish louts that idiot writers have variously identified as Irish, Greek,Italian, Jewish, Spanish, and other ethnic groups in the past five or six decades. I guess it was the Poles turn now. I don't think it's malicious, I think it's just laziness.

But it's a real pity. The Poles have a rich culture that is worth making a good movie out of. I have to go now. My normally lovely, sweet-tempered wife is screaming obscenities and threatening to throw the TV out the window.

I suppose, a comedy. And few nice intentions. And good actors. And that is all. The basic sin, it can be, in extremis , a portrait of an Italian family. But not a Polish one. The cliches are awful and ridiculous. For each Polish person, it represents an injury. Sure, good intentions and few not so bad scenes. But not enough for be more than a bad parody. The regret - a so cast deserves a better script.