It never gives me pleasure to report that any Robert Altman film is a dog, but there's just no denying that "A Wedding" rolls over and dies about mid-way through. Altman tries to instill the same sort of divine chaos on his massive ensemble that he did in "Nashville" to such tremendous effect, but without the strong narrative threads that anchored the earlier movie, this one flounders around without going anywhere.
Mostly to blame is the absolutely terrible script, that no fewer than four people worked on. In an interview on the DVD, Altman reveals that the script was virtually made up as it went along, with scenes planned for filming late in the day being written that morning! Well, the improvisation shows, but in this case not in a good way. Altman has always been famous for giving his actors the freedom to experiment and build their characters in any way they'd like, but in "A Wedding" too much freedom is a bad thing. The characters in this film seem to each live and move in a universe separate from all the others; none of them is consistent, and nearly all simply act arbitrarily in what I suppose is meant to be a zany, farcical way, but instead comes off as incoherent.
Altman's project was actually probably doomed from the start, because the subject of weddings just isn't important enough for the brand of scathing satire that Altman brings to his movies. Somewhere in the unfocused mess of Altman's film is a very funny, light-hearted farce that pokes fun at an institution that Americans take very seriously, and there are some parts that work very well. But there are simply too many characters, too many plot lines, too much STUFF going on in general for the movie ever to come to any sort of conclusion. Altman's point seems to be that weddings are silly, but that's not the hook on which to hang a two+ hour film. And by the end, hot-button topics like abortion, homosexuality, class differences, etc. are being introduced at whim without the slightest effort at fleshing them out or tying them into one another or the plot (such as it is) at large.
The greatest tragedy in "A Wedding" is that a cast of marvelous actors is wasted. Carol Burnett is perhaps the biggest, most recognizable star, but unfortunately she's saddled with a terrible role that she can't do a thing with. Vittorio Gassman and Nina van Pallandt, as the parents of the groom, have a lovely moment together during which they reminisce about how they met and which is one of the film's sole attempts to build sympathetic characters with a history. John Considine has some funny moments as chief of security, one of which involves him escorting the doddery and cranky bishop to the bathroom. Pam Dawber, of all people, breezes into the film at mid-point and does some nice work as the groom's ex-girlfriend. And Lillian Gish is her usual cute self in a couple of early scenes as the family matriarch. She's lucky that her character gets to die before the movie's barely gotten started, so she can avoid the whole debacle. As for everyone else, they do the best they can, and there are throw-away moments here and there that are amusing, but they mostly get lost in the shuffle, and there are some characters whose names, let alone their relationship to anyone else, we never even learn.
To his credit, Altman had been making on average a movie a year for about ten years by the time "A Wedding" was released, and it was the first out-right bad movie he directed. That's a pretty good record. However, he would make up quickly for lost time by releasing in quick succession "Quintet" and "Popeye." I guess no one can have a winning streak forever.
Grade: D
Mostly to blame is the absolutely terrible script, that no fewer than four people worked on. In an interview on the DVD, Altman reveals that the script was virtually made up as it went along, with scenes planned for filming late in the day being written that morning! Well, the improvisation shows, but in this case not in a good way. Altman has always been famous for giving his actors the freedom to experiment and build their characters in any way they'd like, but in "A Wedding" too much freedom is a bad thing. The characters in this film seem to each live and move in a universe separate from all the others; none of them is consistent, and nearly all simply act arbitrarily in what I suppose is meant to be a zany, farcical way, but instead comes off as incoherent.
Altman's project was actually probably doomed from the start, because the subject of weddings just isn't important enough for the brand of scathing satire that Altman brings to his movies. Somewhere in the unfocused mess of Altman's film is a very funny, light-hearted farce that pokes fun at an institution that Americans take very seriously, and there are some parts that work very well. But there are simply too many characters, too many plot lines, too much STUFF going on in general for the movie ever to come to any sort of conclusion. Altman's point seems to be that weddings are silly, but that's not the hook on which to hang a two+ hour film. And by the end, hot-button topics like abortion, homosexuality, class differences, etc. are being introduced at whim without the slightest effort at fleshing them out or tying them into one another or the plot (such as it is) at large.
The greatest tragedy in "A Wedding" is that a cast of marvelous actors is wasted. Carol Burnett is perhaps the biggest, most recognizable star, but unfortunately she's saddled with a terrible role that she can't do a thing with. Vittorio Gassman and Nina van Pallandt, as the parents of the groom, have a lovely moment together during which they reminisce about how they met and which is one of the film's sole attempts to build sympathetic characters with a history. John Considine has some funny moments as chief of security, one of which involves him escorting the doddery and cranky bishop to the bathroom. Pam Dawber, of all people, breezes into the film at mid-point and does some nice work as the groom's ex-girlfriend. And Lillian Gish is her usual cute self in a couple of early scenes as the family matriarch. She's lucky that her character gets to die before the movie's barely gotten started, so she can avoid the whole debacle. As for everyone else, they do the best they can, and there are throw-away moments here and there that are amusing, but they mostly get lost in the shuffle, and there are some characters whose names, let alone their relationship to anyone else, we never even learn.
To his credit, Altman had been making on average a movie a year for about ten years by the time "A Wedding" was released, and it was the first out-right bad movie he directed. That's a pretty good record. However, he would make up quickly for lost time by releasing in quick succession "Quintet" and "Popeye." I guess no one can have a winning streak forever.
Grade: D