''Love, Wedding, Marriage'' is a 2011 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by Dermot Mulroney and starring

Mandy Moore Amanda Leigh Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her debut single, "Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Her debut studio album, '' So Real'' (1999), recei ...

Kellan Lutz Kellan Christopher Lutz (born March 15, 1985) is an American actor and model. He made his film debut in ''Stick It'' (2006), and is best known for playing Emmett Cullen in ''The Twilight Saga'' film series (2008–2012). He has since played Pos ...

James Brolin James Brolin (, born Craig Kenneth Bruderlin; July 18, 1940) is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin. He ...

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...

and

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

. It was released on June 3, 2011.

Plot

Ava and Charlie are newlyweds that have been inspired by her parents', Bradley and Betty's 30-year marriage. Ava decides to throw them a surprise anniversary party, but when Betty finds out about an

affair An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...

Bradley had 25 years ago, she refuses to live with him. Ava then moves her father into her house, without consulting Charlie. Ava promises her new husband that it will only be for a short while. Being a

marriage counselor Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychology and clinical social work that works with families and couples in intimate relationsh ...

, she obsesses over fixing her parents' marriage so much that it starts to affect their relationship. They stop having sex and then, their friend Gerber and new

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

wife, Kasia, whom he had met the night before, show up. He mentions Charlie's first marriage 10 years ago, that she never knew about. Ava gets upset and Charlie tries to explain that it was a long time ago and he was drunk when it happened. When Ava decides to send her parents to another therapist, he suggests doing a

rock climbing Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

exercise to help build trust. One partner climbs while the other holds the rope for support. During the exercise, Ava's parents get into an argument and her father leaves the rope and Betty suspended in air calling for help. Ava leaves her own rope with Charlie to help her mother, which results in him falling and injuring his back and neck. When she tries to apologize, Charlie warns her that her distracted behavior is causing an increasing gulf between them. Ava is still planning the anniversary party in secret when her mother tells her she's leaving on a 6-month-trip to Asia in 10 days. Her new plan to bring her parents together enlists Charlie's help to take her father out for a guys night. They meet up with Gerber at a bar, the trio winds up at a strip club and they become incredibly intoxicated. Arriving home, they find Ava with her mother and Bradley tells Betty she can leave as he's going to marry a hot, young girl from Europe, an idea he got from Gerber. Ava scolds Charlie for ruining her plan which then leads to him complaining about their sex life. When Ava's sister Shelby takes Betty

speed dating Speed dating is a formalized matchmaking process which has the purpose of encouraging eligible singles to meet large numbers of new potential partners in a very short period of time. Organization Usually advance registration is required for ...

, Bradley is at home with Ava, takes a few

sleeping pills Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...

and falls asleep. Ava flushes the rest of the pills down the toilet and calls 9-1-1 to make it look like a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

attempt. During that time, Betty realizes that no man could ever replace Bradley and even more so when she finds out that he's in the hospital. When Charlie asks Ava how many pills Bradley had taken, she admits that she had created the whole incident attempting to bring her parents together. He yells at her for her manipulative behavior, storming out of the hospital. When Ava gets home, she discovers that Charlie has left to stay at Gerber's. The next day, Ava goes to Charlie's office to apologize, and asks him to return home. He replies that “he can't answer that right now”. Inviting him to her parents' 30th anniversary party which is now back on, he declines, saying that he isn't in the mood for celebrating. Ava becomes enraged and accuses Charlie of having an affair with his secretary, Adriana. He denies it, questions her motives for marrying him and suggests that perhaps she did it to boost her career and lend credibility to her marriage counseling business. Ava is stunned, and leaves. The next day, Gerber kicks Charlie out as Kasia's family comes to visit. When Charlie hears Gerber talk to his wife in Polish, and asks him about it, Gerber says that if you love someone and want to live a successful married life, you have to accept and respect their family as well. Charlie goes to find Ava who is at her parents' party. They meet after Ava realizes it's her own fault for the way their marriage is and wants to apologize. Charlie redoes his marriage vows and Ava responds, "I do." Charlie suggests going back to the party, but Ava suggests they

consummate In many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, the consummation of a marriage, often called simply ''consummation'', is the first (or first officially credited) act of sexual intercourse between two people, following their marriage to ...

their marriage instead.

Cast

as Ava Gold *

as Charlie *

as Betty Gold *

as Bradley Gold *

Jessica Szohr Jessica Karen Szohr (;) is an American actress. She started her screen career appearing on television shows such as ''My Wife and Kids'' (2003), ''Joan of Arcadia'' (2004), '' What About Brian'' (2007) and ''CSI: Miami'' (2007). She gained recogn ...

as Shelby Gold *

Michael Weston Michael Weston (born Michael Rubinstein; October 25, 1973) is an American television and film actor. His best-known roles are the private detective Lucas on ''House'', the deranged and sadistic kidnapper Jake in the HBO serial drama '' Six Feet ...

as Gerber *

Marta Żmuda Trzebiatowska Marta Żmuda Trzebiatowska (born 26 July 1984, in Człuchów) is a Polish film, television and theater actress. She is best known for playing the role of Marta Orkisz in Polish TV series '' Teraz albo nigdy!'' and Monika Miller in ''Julia''. She ...

as Kasia *

Richard Reid Richard Colvin Reid (born 12 August 1973), also known as the "Shoe Bomber", is the perpetrator of the failed shoe bombing attempt on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young ...

as Ian *

as Dr. George *

Alexis Denisof Alexis Denisof (born February 25, 1966) is an American actor. He is primarily known for playing Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and its spin-off ''Angel''. He also had a recurring role on ''How I Met Your ...

as Lloyd *

Alyson Hannigan Alyson Lee Hannigan (born March 24, 1974) is an American actress. After starting her career at age four with appearances in commercials, she moved to Hollywood at age 11 and soon got an agent. Hannigan began her film career with supporting r ...

as Courtney *

Colleen Camp Colleen Celeste Camp (born June 7, 1953) is an American character actress and producer. After appearing in several bit parts, she had a lead role in the comedy ''The Swinging Cheerleaders'' (1974), followed by roles in two installments of the '' ...

as Ethel *

Andrew Keegan Andrew Keegan (born January 29, 1979) is an American actor best known for his roles in television shows including '' Trinkets'', '' Moesha'', ''Party of Five'' and '' 7th Heaven'' and in films such as ''10 Things I Hate about You'' (1999), ''The ...

as Jeramiah Stevens * Gabrielle Shuff as Adrianna * Joe Chrest as John * Kim Vu as Amy * Autumn Federici as Jessica * Sarah Lieving as Rachel *

Billy Slaughter William H. Slaughter is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles in '' The Campaign'' and ''Focus''. In his free time he works with students that want to become actors and actresses at Launch Model And Talent in Metairie, ...

as Actor (voice) *

Julia Roberts Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and thr ...

as Ava's Therapist (voice)

Reception

The film was panned by film critics. On review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has a 0% approval rating, based on 19 reviews with a weighted average score of 2/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it scored 13 out of 100, an "overwhelming dislike" based on ten critics. ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' called it "an emotional wreck of major proportions".Betsy Sharkey
Movie Review: 'Love, Wedding, Marriage'
''The Los Angeles Times'', June 03, 2011 ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' said it was "wooden and shallow".Kalvin Henely
Love, Wedding, Marriage
''Slant Magazine'', June 03, 2011 ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called it "a flat romantic comedy" .."that would have seemed insipid even in 1953".Todd McCarthy
Love Wedding Marriage: Film Review
''The Hollywood Reporter'', 4/30/2011 They added that Moore came across as a "high school student" and that "Lutz's dyed blond hair does nothing to encourage taking him seriously." ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' said it was full of "half-hearted melodramatics and schmaltzy bromides".Nick Shager
Love, Wedding, Marriage: Oy
''The Village Voice'', June 01, 2011 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said Lutz looks like a "

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

-doll husband," suggesting "more success in bench-pressing than grape-crushing."Jeanette Catsoulis
The Dos and Don’ts of ‘I Do’
''The New York Times'', June 2, 2011 They added the film felt like "punishment for a crime you can’t remember committing".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1436559 2011 films 2010s English-language films American romantic comedy films Films scored by Blake Neely Films about weddings 2011 romantic comedy films 2010s American films