'Love, Weddings and Other Disasters' was watched with very mixed expectations, leaning closer towards intrepidation. Have enjoyed/love a good deal of Diane Keaton's work and Jeremy Irons is one of my all time favourite actors, and they (particularly Irons) were the reasons for watching. The advertising and trailers did not look promising to put it lightly, word of mouth was generally awful and Dennis Dugan is something of a dread name in my eyes.
While there are worse films around, there is very little to love about 'Love, Weddings and Other Disasters' and overall it is a disaster and really is that bad on the whole. This is coming from someone too who likes comedy and romance and who has no problem with films with multiple storylines. By all means it is nowhere near as bad as 'Jack and Jill', it takes a lot of doing for any film to be on that level of abominable, and the valiant work Keaton and Irons give to save it is truly admirable, but they are much better than this and deserved much better.
There are a couple of redeeming merits. Keaton and against type Irons attack their roles and material with spirited enthusiasm and have a truly delightful chemistry, the only source of charm in the film.
Keaton also has the film's best line in her reaction to Laurence's note, echoing the viewer's sentiments in their frustration at one of the worst cases of the many ridiculous character behaviours.
Can say nothing else good however. The rest of the cast do not work. Maggie Grace tries but has a bland character and she at the end of the day comes over as that. Worst of all is Dugan's cameo, which is just embarrassing (one of the worst since Madonna's in 'Die Another Day'), coming over as insufferably irritating. The soundtrack is not just forgettable but it even more grates and is overused and random to an ill fitting degree. Dugan's direction shows how incompetent he can be behind the camera, showing a complete disregard for pace, which throughout is erratic and lacking in energy), or subtlety, which seems to be an alien word to Dugan.
Furthermore, the story is very disjointed, having four subplots and instead of tying together nicely it feels like four different films in one and only one of them being marginally watchable. They also feel unrelated and then are tied too predictably and neatly. The gameshow one is particularly inept and the cringe factor was through the roof. Of the four, only Keaton and Irons' has some degree of success and that was a long way from perfect. There is very little warmth or charm, when it comes to romance it is bland other than with Keaton and Irons.
On top of that, 'Love, Weddings and Other Disasters' is a complete disaster when it comes to the comedy other than one line from Keaton. The dialogue is crude and juvenile with no sophistication or subtlety in sight, and it constantly sounds awkward. Too many of the comedic set pieces are overlong and distasteful, with one of the worst offenders being the scene on the escalator. The character bore and/or irritate and there are too many stupid character decisions (such as Laurence writing the note and the gameshow subplot is rife with them). It doesn't even look good, the camera work is poorly framed with bacon slicer like editing that wastes the lovely locations.
In conclusion, really, really bad. 2/10.
While there are worse films around, there is very little to love about 'Love, Weddings and Other Disasters' and overall it is a disaster and really is that bad on the whole. This is coming from someone too who likes comedy and romance and who has no problem with films with multiple storylines. By all means it is nowhere near as bad as 'Jack and Jill', it takes a lot of doing for any film to be on that level of abominable, and the valiant work Keaton and Irons give to save it is truly admirable, but they are much better than this and deserved much better.
There are a couple of redeeming merits. Keaton and against type Irons attack their roles and material with spirited enthusiasm and have a truly delightful chemistry, the only source of charm in the film.
Keaton also has the film's best line in her reaction to Laurence's note, echoing the viewer's sentiments in their frustration at one of the worst cases of the many ridiculous character behaviours.
Can say nothing else good however. The rest of the cast do not work. Maggie Grace tries but has a bland character and she at the end of the day comes over as that. Worst of all is Dugan's cameo, which is just embarrassing (one of the worst since Madonna's in 'Die Another Day'), coming over as insufferably irritating. The soundtrack is not just forgettable but it even more grates and is overused and random to an ill fitting degree. Dugan's direction shows how incompetent he can be behind the camera, showing a complete disregard for pace, which throughout is erratic and lacking in energy), or subtlety, which seems to be an alien word to Dugan.
Furthermore, the story is very disjointed, having four subplots and instead of tying together nicely it feels like four different films in one and only one of them being marginally watchable. They also feel unrelated and then are tied too predictably and neatly. The gameshow one is particularly inept and the cringe factor was through the roof. Of the four, only Keaton and Irons' has some degree of success and that was a long way from perfect. There is very little warmth or charm, when it comes to romance it is bland other than with Keaton and Irons.
On top of that, 'Love, Weddings and Other Disasters' is a complete disaster when it comes to the comedy other than one line from Keaton. The dialogue is crude and juvenile with no sophistication or subtlety in sight, and it constantly sounds awkward. Too many of the comedic set pieces are overlong and distasteful, with one of the worst offenders being the scene on the escalator. The character bore and/or irritate and there are too many stupid character decisions (such as Laurence writing the note and the gameshow subplot is rife with them). It doesn't even look good, the camera work is poorly framed with bacon slicer like editing that wastes the lovely locations.
In conclusion, really, really bad. 2/10.