License To Wed
By Mitch Emerson
July 4, 2007 - 13:24
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Starring: Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, John Krasinski, Christine Taylor, Roxanne Hart
Directed By: Ken Kwapis
Produced By: Bradley Fischer, David Thwaites, Kim Zubick (II)
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: July 3rd, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual humor and language.
Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
In
License To Wed
,
Robin Williams plays Reverend Frank, an unorthodox (I'll say!)
marriage counselor who requires prospective wedding vow takers to
complete a “Marriage Preparation Course” before tying the knot in
his church. With annoying little sidekick Choir Boy, which isn't his
character name, but it's all I could find online, Rev. Frank is about
to make Ben and Sadie's engagement a living hell.
License To Wed
is actually a romantic comedy masquerading as a Robin Williams movie.
On the outside this film can be seen as just another Robin Williams
movie but what comes through, subtly at first, is how the bond of
love needs to be tempered to become strong. And if anything can do
it, it's Rev. Frank's course. Although the film suffers from
“Traileritis”, an affliction where all the best scenes are
revealed in the trailer, most of those scenes are a bit longer and
funnier. The best scene comedy wise has to be the robot baby scenes,
where Ben and Sadie are given robotic twin babies to take care of and
these things go haywire in a mall. Did I forget to mention that they
are also watching a friends two kids at the same time? Now don't get
me wrong, the film is a pretty good comedy but for some reason, I was
actually able to read a little more into it than what I usually do.
The base feeling is that Ben and Sadie love each other and are
willing to go through hell to be with each other; although that
realization comes at different moments for each of them.
In
comedies like this no one really gets to stretch their acting wings.
Robin Williams is Robin Williams, John Krasinski basically is the
same as his character from
The Office
,
Mandy Moore is pretty much rehashing her character Milly from
Because
I Said So
and is unbelievable
as a control freak in denial because she looks too much like a
sweetheart. There are quite a few familiar faces peppered throughout
the film including Christine Taylor, Eric Christian Olsen and
The
Office
regulars Mindy Kaling,
Angela Kinsey, Rachael Harris and Brian Baumgartner. One last
mention, there is a kid credited as Choir Boy, played by Josh
Flitter. Seems like an afterthought tossed in the script at the last
minute, not to mention being a blatant rip off blended from Andy
Milonakis and the
The Man Show
boy. He just annoyed the hell out of me.
While
not quite as misrepresented as
Man of the Year
,
License to Wed
is not
a Robin Williams movie as we know and love him, but it is still a
pretty decent romantic comedy that would work as a date movie, or
maybe not, seeing as this takes all the things that could go wrong in
a marriage and turns it up to 11. But don't distress! There is
actually a message and coupled with some decent laughs,
License
to Wed
will provide you with an
evening of amusing entertainment.
Until
we get Mork and Mindy: The Movie,
Keep
reading
Mitch E
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