Anything but Wedded bliss

So with the Indians having a (much needed) night off tonight, I decided to head over to the budget theater. In hindsight, I was probably better off staying at home and staring into space, because I just saw the atrocious License to Wed. Now normally a movie like this would have been one I would have skipped altogher, but I'm such an Office mark, that I wanted to see John Krasinski in a movie, plus having to look at Mandy Moore for 90 minutes aint so bad either. What I underestimated, unfortunately, was the obnoxiousness of Robin Williams.

Williams, who plays a priest helping Krasinski and Moore determine whether they're ready to get married or not, is just one aspect of the "ick" factor that is found throughout the film. There's also the young boy who plays Williams' assistant. Not to mention Moore's family members who are all so oftputting that they seem to be from a different film altogether.

But most troubling of all is all the tests that Williams puts the engaged couple go through. It's apparent that these tasks are designed to break the couple down before building them up again and help them realize that they are made for each other. But instead of being helpful to the couple or funny to the audience, they end up being uncomfortable, obtrusive and sometimes just downright bizarre. Worst of all, the film doesn't give you any indication upfront that this couple needs counseling. They seem pretty normal and would be able to handle any of the problems that come with marriage already. At worst, they just haven't learned how to properly communicate with each other yet.

And maybe it's the communication scholar in me that has such a problem with this film. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, "Just talk to one another and all this will be over". To a degree, that's the point of the film, but it gets its message across in such a terrible way. The fact that by the end of the film they get married (oops, spoiler alert) and actually thank Rev. Frank for what he's done is just repulsive. It should not have taken his tactless actions to get them to realize they need to open up more with one another.

The only saving grace is the fleeting cameos by some of the other cast members from The Office. Unfortunately, their time is cut short so that we had plenty of time for Robin to do some of his unfunny voices and ad-libs. I was sitting there shaking my head half the time asking myself "Who finds this funny?". Sadly, I didn't have to look far as there were a handful of chucklehead girls sitting behind me who apparently didn't see any of the bits in the trailer, nor Robin's act over the past twenty years.

But I digress. The bottom line here is that even if the film was funnier, it still would be just a cheap knockoff of better films that have come before it. This film takes elements of Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, and Anger Management and does each of them worse. I'd like to provide you with something positive about this film, but I'm at a loss here. To paraphrase John Krasinski's better character, Jim from The Office, "Who has two thumbs and hates this movie? This guy!" Grade: D+