Licence to Wed - Movie/DVD Review

Robin Williams is one of my favourite comedic actors; his combination of sharp wit and rapid-fire delivery, not to mention sheer zaniness, can make pretty much any character hilarious, even when the material itself is a tad substandard.  It’s just a shame that Williams’ choice of movies to star in is now becoming Eddie Murphy-esque; almost every movie he has released in recent years has been, to be blunt, pretty much crap.

License to Wed starts off in a fairly promising way.  Starring Mandy Moore and John Krasinski in the role of young, moonstruck lovers, they are soon engaged and planning to get married in the family church.  Everything is going along swimmingly until, of course, William’s zany Reverend Frank decides to put them through a ‘pre-marriage course’.  Whackyness ensues.

Williams brings a tonne of energy to the role of course, and Moore is as mesmerising as she always is, but Krasinski has less charisma than the ugly, weeping cut I have on the back of my hand at the moment.  He drags all the scenes involving him down into the pit of mediocrity, taking Moore’s, Williams’, and the various supporting characters’ strong performances down with him; it’s actually remarkable to see a professional actor suck all the life out of a movie; it’s almost an art.

The other, perhaps more serious problem with this film is the completely ludicrous concept. While craziness is welcome when it comes to most of William’s films, it has to be a targeted, intelligent craziness (if that even makes sense).  The concept behind this movie is just stupid; the Reverend forces this couple to go from loving each other to being at each other’s throats, only to help them make up again…to test their love?  Here’s an idea Frank: don’t make them pissed at each other in the first place!  The fact that this priest and his fat little sidekick (and how annoying is the obligatory obnoxious fat kid these days?) bug the apartment of the couple, spy on them, and routinely endanger their lives in the pursuit of their stupid quest; it’s simply moronic.

Robin Williams gives his all trying to drag this movie up as far as he can.  He even succeeds somewhat; there is the occasional all-too-infrequent amusing situation, and the occasional Williams one-liner will probably draw a chuckle.  But at the end of the day it is impossible to shake that this movie feels incredibly forced and undeniably stupid; a better scriptwriter would have done wonders for the production.  As it is, this is pretty much a waste of time to anyone that isn’t entertained incredibly easily.  Give it a miss.       

     

I rate Licence to Wed: 3/10 (Two points for Robin Williams, one for Mandy Moore, the rest are lost through a combination of poor script and the black hole of charisma that is John Krasinski.)

   

- Tim Sweeney