The Big Wedding - film review

Diane Keaton, the patron saint of flaky flibbertigibbets, used to be hilarious. These days, sadly, her presence guarantees that what you are about to see will induce groans
31 May 2013

Is it possible for a 21st-century romcom to star Diane Keaton and be thrilling? The patron saint of flaky flibbertigibbets, the 67-year-old actress used to be hilarious. These days, sadly, her presence guarantees that what you are about to see will induce groans.

And so it goes, here. Keaton is hippy dippy Ellie, forced to pretend, when her adopted son gets married, that she’s still with her ex, Don (Robert De Niro), the cynical sculptor who left her for another woman, years before. She’ll have to move back into their palatial Connecticut home. She and Don may even have to share a bed.

The plot is based on a French-Swiss farce and (in that it wants to show middle-aged women can be sexy) is reminiscent of It’s Complicated, Something’s Gotta Give and Mamma Mia!. I wanted to root for Ellie. Yet the film is so smug and cack-handed I found myself wishing, instead, that she and her whole family would get struck down by E. coli. Big wedding? Big fat nothing, more like.

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