The Wedding Singer
Directed by Frank Coraci
Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore
You know you are getting old when the 1980s are portrayed as history. OK, well not exactly history, but the styles and music is familiar and disturbingly different from the 1990s. This is the story of Robbie(Sandler), a nice simple man who sings at weddings- hence that snappy title. After getting stood up at the altar on his own big day, he goes off the weddings business and chums up with waitress Julia (Drew Barrymore) who is engaged to a stockbroker yuppie type. Of course the cutesome twosome eventually realize that they are made for each other, but along the way we get to have a laugh at some of the more extreme 90s fashions(designer stubble, Miami Vice suits, lots of pastels, Boy George look for blokes, snoods, leggings and lots of glittery eye shadow.)
A sleeper hit, I thought this film was a bit of a snooze to be honest. Sandler and Barrymore charmed many, but I found their saccharine sweetness rather cloying and irritating after a while. Sandler in particular was adenoidally hang dog. His basset hound eyes and Nik Kershaw hairdo made me want to punch him. Some of his more stroppy moments and a memorable critique of a group of wedding guests dating chances were funny though. Barrymore as the extremely cutesy girl(with little brains) was equally annoying at times. Her role and that of her yuppie boyfriend were little more than stereotypes.
Sloppy and sentimental as the Americans seem to love, I was mildly amused and enjoyed the music, but the film was over rated in my opinion, with a lot depending on how much you liked Sandler and Barrymore. I was not a fan before and The Wedding Singer has done nothing to alter that. Irritating. 4/10.
June 1998
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