FlashCallahan
Rufus Hound plays the bohemian of the two brothers in this comedy. He travels home six weeks before his brothers wedding and has a surprise for him, he's going to video the events before the wedding to give to him as a wedding gift.What Hound doesn't know is that his brother is getting married to a girl at school who was a tear away and a pretty wild child back then. She is now prim and proper and very wealthy thanks to her mothers marriage.The thing is, the more Hound spends time with her, the more his feelings grow for her...I like Hound. When he's in it, he's the best thing about the awful Celebrity Juice, and he's quite funny. The same thing goes for Webb. He's great in Peep Show and HIGNFY, so this should have been a throwaway romp with a lot of laughs.It isn't, and it doesn't provide any laughs. And. The main reason? Because everyone is so nice and the only reason what Punch and Hound grow feelings for each other is because half of the time they are together they are drunk.The supporting cast are your bunch of perfunctory middle class English people you see in every sitcom, the neurotic wedding planner, the comedy vicar, the wannabe posh parents, and the hilarious grandmother played by someone famous.All here present and bland.But Lucy Punch is brilliant as usual and is the best thing here, and it appears that everyone is put into the shade when she's on screen.It's predictable, and we have the cringeworthy scenes, that are not so anymore, because you can see them coming from a mile off.To be honest, the trailers looked good, but don't give in for the rom com thing, its really awfully bland...
Neil Welch
After their parents died, Raif (Rufus Hound) went travelling while more staid Tim (Robert Webb) remained at home and settled into a conventional life. Tim is now about to marry Saskia (Lucy Punch) and Raif has returned to be best man. He also has in mind compiling a fly-on-the-wall video of the events leading up to and including the wedding. That's the plot. There's more to it than that, of course - Saskia has a past as a wilful teenager, Tim gets more uptight as time goes on, Saskia's family as nouveau riche and her mother (Harriet Walter) is set on outdoing all the other nouveaux riches, and so on.My early thoughts were that this didn't really belong on the cinema screen. With a cast mostly known for TV work, it had a feel of a long episode from a sitcom. But, as it went on I warmed to it more, and I ended up enjoying it a great deal. In fact, I laughed often and heartily (there is a dance sequence which is laugh out loud funny).The characters are all likable, which helps (even Robert Webb's Tim, saddled with an uptight anal-retentive character who folds his dirty washing before putting it in the laundry basket, is essentially a good, likable person). The events stay within the boundaries of credibility, the plot is satisfactory (if somewhat glib towards the end), and there is some excellent acting, particularly from Harriet Walter and Lucy Punch. Lucy Punch has a happy knack of being attractive, sexy, and funny, all at the same time.The fly on the wall home video motif is well sustained for most of the film but falls to bits towards the end, where a scene in a field has multiple camera angles.This is a small film, but one which I found much more rewarding than I expected to.
kath_henderson
There seems to be a throng of Wedding based films recently. After Bridesmaids but it could've been Four Weddings and a Funeral that really started the trend. Whatever the root it seems both Hollywood and Britain are enamoured by the sheer social minefield that it causes. The worst of human beings are exposed in this high stress scenario, the glamour and need to show the guests a fabulous time tend to overwhelm the fact that this is, at the end, an expression of love between two people. Which should be the easiest thing in the world but is just... not...Even though every single idea that could surround the central theme of the wedding has been explored, especially the Hen/Stag Parties, this film tries find a unique idea the Best Man making a Wedding Video as a gift to his brother, the Groom. In doing so he records the build up to one of the most stressful experiences the poor Bride has ever endured. The Brides Mother taking a lot of creative control in the matter causing much vitriol between the Bride and Groom.It's a very predictable affair. But there's a lot enjoyable aspects. I personally found the visibility of the camera refreshing, knowing a character was in control of gave the actors the chance to really react to the absurdity of the situation and also feel the embarrassment of it being captured. It added a layer to the proceedings which was fun to watch, plus Rufus Howard's character trying to be creative and shoot as much as possible, plus the microphone man, Matt Berry, causing arguments and writing songs. The decadence of the Mother of the Bride was always a good mine for comedy too. But it's all subjective really and how much experience you have with weddings. Of course everyone will find humour in different jokes.I thought the acting was particularly good. Rufus Hound, who I've never really considered as a Leading Man, or even an actor, having only seen him on panel shows, was really quite good. The man can definitely act and he really sold the emotional beats along with the comedy. Lucy Punch is always fantastic and completely underrated for some reason. Harriet Walters was fabulous as the Mother and Robert Webb was perfectly lovely as the nervous Groom.There's nothing remotely surprising but there's a lot to be enjoyed. It's well acted, got a few funny bits and still manages to strive for a unique thread even though we know the ending by a mile off. It's the journey though, hanging around with these perfectly lovely characters and watching a wedding you're damn well pleased you won't be involved with.
leonasunflower1978
Having read the 2 reviews on here and seen some of the critics reviews I wasn't expecting a lot from this film. I'm a fan of peep show and Robert Mitchell in general so thought I'd give it a go and was pleasantly surprised! If you take this film for what it is, a light hearted comedy romp, it's actually quite enjoyable. Rufus Hound, who I have never heard of or seen before, was rather irritating to begin with in a Ricky gervais kind of way and I was worried this would ruin the film, but his character really grew on me and I think I was a bit in love with him by the end! The characters are all likable and amusing in their own ways and I'm sure some of them are fairly true to life, particularly the rich society women who are the "friends" of the mother of the bride! I found myself chuckling through a lot of the film and laughed out loud several times and left the cinema with a nice warm glow! It may not be a lasting classic but it's a fun, sweet and enjoyable film and I would give it 7/10