'Big Wedding' has Oscar-Winning Stars but Little Shine

"The Big Wedding" is playing at Carmike Riverstone 15 Cinemas in Canton. For more theater information, show times and pricing, click the link above.

The premise, courtesy of the film's official website:

With an all-star cast lead by Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried and Topher Grace, "The Big Wedding" is an uproarious romantic comedy about a charmingly modern family trying to survive a weekend wedding celebration that has the potential to become a full blown family fiasco. To the amusement of their adult children and friends, long divorced couple Don and Ellie Griffin (De Niro and Keaton) are once again forced to play the happy couple for the sake of their adopted son's wedding after his ultra conservative biological mother unexpectedly decides to fly halfway across the world to attend. With all of the wedding guests looking on, the Griffins are hilariously forced to confront their past, present and future — and hopefully avoid killing each other in the process.

Here's what critics are saying:

Writer-director Justin Zackham has one incredible asset at his disposal for 'The Big Wedding': an exceptional cast ... Sadly, superior talent can propel a movie only so far. Bad scripts beget bad movies, even when four Academy Award winners are involved. — Stephanie Merry, The Washington Post

Everyone does his own thing and, as with The Big Wedding's poster, they feel Photoshopped into place without any real sense of cohesion. Apart from a few moments that capture the spiraling chaos, unresolved crises and long-simmering resentments of a large family gathering, Zackham's film feels as plastic as a cake topper — and just as hard to digest. — Keith Phipps, NPR

How many Oscar winners does it take to totally screw up a comedy? The brutally unfunny, cringe-worthy 'The Big Wedding' provides ample opportunities for Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams to embarrass themselves. To be fair, they’re repeatedly enabled by writer-director Justin Zackham, who borrows a tortured premise from a French farce and embellishes it with bizarre plot turns to the point where the actors’ stereotypical characters bear only the most fleeting resemblance to actual human beings. — Lou Lumenick, New York Post

This is an American movie trying, strenuously, to 'swing' a little. The slapstick is broad and generally awkward. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

The cobbled-together story is forced, formulaic and never believable. It's a particularly unholy combination. While the movie's contrivances are occasionally mitigated by a few laugh lines from Robin Williams as a recovering alcoholic Catholic priest and Robert De Niro as a randy sculptor, most of the cast is playing versions of characters they've played before. — Claudia Puig, USA Today 

"The Big Wedding" runs 90 minutes and is rated R for language, sexual content and brief nudity.

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