License to Wed

Posted by Nathan Deen (nathan@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 3, 2007

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

“License to Wed” is a movie full of miscasts. Lets break down the characters one by one. Robin Williams just can’t seem to get back on that wagon he fell off of. In “License to Wed” he plays Reverend Frank, who has his own marriage preparation course at St. Augustine Church. It takes about 30 seconds into “License to Wed” to figure out that Williams is completely wrong for the part of a reverend because he says something like “but she doesn’t dump your wussy ass.” Does that sound like a reverend to you? Do I even need to continue?

Next there’s Mandy Moore, who, to put it lightly, is having a bad year. How bad of a year is she having? Let’s just say that “License to Wed” is only the second worst romantic comedy she’s been in this year (“Because I Said So”). Like “Because I Said So,” her character is instantly forgettable the moment you leave the theater. Moore plays Sadie Jones, who has just been engaged to her boyfriend, Ben Murphy (John Krasinski, I’ll get to him in a moment). Sadie and Ben are the newest victims to Reverend Frank’s marriage preparation course.

How about little Josh Flitter, who has appeared in recent films like “Nancy Drew” and “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” Here, he plays a student of Reverend Frank and is just a thorn-in-the-side supporting character. When we first meet him, he sneaks up on Ben and Ben says: “Jesus! You scared me.” Then Flitter’s character (whose name isn’t mentioned) with a glaring look replies “Jesus didn’t scare you, I did!” I immediately said to myself, “Wow, that kid is the Devil.”

Then there’s DeRay Davis (“School For Scoundrels”) who plays probably the worst buddy advice giver ever to appear on film. The admirable thing about “License to Wed” is that it has the guts to admit that it’s a bad movie, on more than one occasion. In the case of Davis’ Joel, Joel is trying to give advice to Ben when he’s on the verge of losing Sadie and Ben tells him something like “I love you, but you are the worst advice giver on the face of the planet.” Ben stole the words right out of my mouth. A ten year old could write a better character than Joel.

Finally, we get to Krasinski and the only reason I didn’t mention him earlier is because he isn’t a miscast. Krasinski is an actor whose career has been full of smaller roles and he finally gets to show what he can do, and I have to say as bad as this movie is, the guy does show some talent. He seems to be the only one here trying hard and he’s absolutely the only thing the film has going for it. He makes the scene with the robot babies work, as well as the first 45 minutes of the film. There is one awful scene where Reverend Frank is trying to heal Ben’s bloody nose through the power of prayer, but that’s the writers and Williams’ fault for not be funny, not Krasinski’s. The first half of the film works because of Krasinski and director Ken Kwapis wisely gives him the majority of the screen time. At that time I was thinking that the film wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. But then it just falls apart like a house of cards.

Whatever the film had going for it is thrown out the window with an atrocious scene where Sadie is driving blindfolded with Ben trying to guide her. The scene shows an old man on one of the motorized chairs slamming into a car. In that instant, my grade for the film went from a C+ to a D+. Something like that is supposed to be funny? Then not only that, they just keep driving like a bunch of jerks. If that doesn’t do the film in completely, then the scene where Ben punches Reverend Frank in the face certainly does. I said to myself “Holy crap, did he really just deck a reverend in the face?” How did the writers ever think that that scene would work under any circumstance? I’m not even a Christian and I felt like screaming WWJD?!

The first 45 minutes of “License to Wed” aren’t too bad, while the last 45 minutes are just God awful. They’re so bad, it makes you think that filmmakers should be required to obtain a film license, then movies like this would never be made. Krasinski’s charm is soon forgotten as Williams and Moore appear more and more and the film keeps getting worse and worse. The material keeps getting substantially more unfunny as each dreadful minute passes. The comic theme of the film is getting old at this point and everyone just seems lost at what to do. Then to top it all off, “License to Wed” ends with one of the most cheesy, craptastic romantic endings I’ve ever seen. Everyone involved with “License to Wed” should give a big hug to Krasinski, because without him, this film could easily be down there with the worst of the worst of 2007.

| | Read more articles by Nathan Deen