A great cast goes a long way, but unfortunately, I can't say that about Molly Ringwald's wardrobe which appears to be a running gag. If so, it works. It made me gag. One of her outfits makes her appear that she thinks that she's Mildred Pierce, pretty odd for 1990. But then again, she comes from a really audacious family, a mix of Italian Americans and Jewish Americans, and nowhere as glamorously flashy as Fran Drescher on "The Nanny". Having been dragged to this when it first came out, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, but 30 plus years later, all I remember about it is the joke of a wedding dress she wears that was on the poster and the VHS and DVD cover. This film is actually very well written, penned by its director, Alan Alda, and definitely in a Woody Allen mentality, and the cast is a plethora of truly funny people.
This is the polar opposite of "Father of the Bride" where daddy is forgotten, because here, the father of the bride and the father of the groom (Alda and Nicolas Coster) become quick rivals in their efforts to take over the wedding. The bride-to-be's mother, Madeline Kahn, sits looking on in horror as she hears all of the audacious plans that he has, while Bibi Besch, the mother of the groom, schemes with her husband to take over. They are both pretty well-off, with Alda the running a construction company with the help of his sister-in-law's husband, Joe Pesci, ending up in business deals with the mafia ties versus young whose son Anthony LaPaglia makes a play with the other sister, tough talking cop Alley Sheedy. Pesci is an absolute sleazeball, having an affair with his secretary, unaware that his wife, Catherine O'Hara, is plotting against him.
A lot of scenes are stolen by veteran actress Julie Bovasso, best remembered for her role as John Travolta's mother in "Saturday Night Fever", speaking her mind in the most amusing way, and really telling it like it is. She pretty much rolls her eyes at everybody around her, and certainly they all deserve it. The New York City settings add beautifully to tell the story, with Coster and Besch living on Sutton Place, and LaPaglia hanging out in Little Italy. The film is much more entertaining when it focuses on situations not surrounding the wedding, and by the time the bride shows up, you'll probably have forgotten that the film was about a wedding. In fact, one of the things that bothered me about this film the most was its very generic title which really doesn't give it much flavor.
This is the polar opposite of "Father of the Bride" where daddy is forgotten, because here, the father of the bride and the father of the groom (Alda and Nicolas Coster) become quick rivals in their efforts to take over the wedding. The bride-to-be's mother, Madeline Kahn, sits looking on in horror as she hears all of the audacious plans that he has, while Bibi Besch, the mother of the groom, schemes with her husband to take over. They are both pretty well-off, with Alda the running a construction company with the help of his sister-in-law's husband, Joe Pesci, ending up in business deals with the mafia ties versus young whose son Anthony LaPaglia makes a play with the other sister, tough talking cop Alley Sheedy. Pesci is an absolute sleazeball, having an affair with his secretary, unaware that his wife, Catherine O'Hara, is plotting against him.
A lot of scenes are stolen by veteran actress Julie Bovasso, best remembered for her role as John Travolta's mother in "Saturday Night Fever", speaking her mind in the most amusing way, and really telling it like it is. She pretty much rolls her eyes at everybody around her, and certainly they all deserve it. The New York City settings add beautifully to tell the story, with Coster and Besch living on Sutton Place, and LaPaglia hanging out in Little Italy. The film is much more entertaining when it focuses on situations not surrounding the wedding, and by the time the bride shows up, you'll probably have forgotten that the film was about a wedding. In fact, one of the things that bothered me about this film the most was its very generic title which really doesn't give it much flavor.