Hochzeit auf Umwegen

The one thing i wanted to comment on about this movie is its dull visual style. There is almost no visual language at all. Every shot lacks almost any dynamism/movement. The color palette is fairly bland. The lighting is purely utilitarian. The weather is not used in any visually suggestive or symbolic way. There is a lot of grey, dark tones, shadows. In short, its dull visual quality only highlights the more talky and pedantic aspects of the script. It was originally a stage play and it's almost as if director Michael Jacobs-whose background is in TV-doesn't realize that a stage is at least well-lit. This is his directorial debut so I'll cut him some slack (as though he cares what I think lol), and I will admit I laughed a number of times. Macy gets all the good lines. Gere is stuffy and somnambulistic. Keaton is very good. Sarandon is okay too. I think Luke Bracey was the worst piece of acting in the film, and I imagine it's because he wasn't given enough takes, or that he didn't fully understand his character, which I would cut him some slack for because I didn't fully understand him for most of the film either. So, you can watch this movie, but I recommend stopping in the middle to get to bed and then forgetting to watch the rest.

I had to put on subtitles for this. For a talky romantic comedy with no explosions. Christopher Nolan this is not.

Directors: pay attention to audio. At this point, we're nearly back to silent film with how badly y'all handle this stuff. Movie watchers all watched the explainer about why movie audio is so bad these days. Did movie directors? You should. I don't care if your actors want to sound more "naturalistic" with their mumbles and their whispers. They have a job to do and they are not doing it if I can't hear the words coming out of their mouths.

Apparently my review is too short until now.

Deep sigh.... you know that sinking feeling right at the beginning of a movie WHEN you immediately recognize the movie you are watching is a STINKER, a FLOP, well there you have it...

The bad: this movie shouldnt have been made. It was made anyway AND advertised SOLELY to attract an OLDER audience who recognizes these fabulous names of Richard Gere and Diane Keaton. Even William H. Macey was (and still is) a great actors, but this is a SENIORS movie with only some young B-actors thrown in to at least try and attract SOME youngsters to go watch it. I doubt any youngsters will go watch this FLOP. And deservedly so...

I feel sorry for anyone who decided to go watch this empty vessel, this hollow surrogate of a movie.

Recommended to be AVOIDED like the plague. You have been warned....

The story isn't bad but the conversations are unbelievably bad. None of them flow and most of time not even believable. I can't imagine anyone one in any of the situations would behave the way every single characters does in every scene. It's like they are all awkward individuals that can't communicate or act appropriately. Maybe one person might be weird and a bad conversationalist, but everyone in the movie? It makes the whole movie hard to get into and believe. I don't think it's bad acting, although it comes off that way, because it's a good cast. I think it is the writing that ruined the whole movie. It seems lazy and not thought out at all. There isn't a single articulate conversation in the whole movie. Such a bummer because the cast is great.

This was a movie of such contrived drivel that having to watch 'mature' characters who hadn't learned anything about how to be in this world along the way of their collective 260+ years on this planet made me squirm uncomfortably in my seat that the only saving grace was that the movie came in at 92 minutes in length.

So fed up was I, that without wanting to, a fairly loud sigh of exasperation left my upper respiratory tract and caused the biggest laugh of the night in the theater I attended of this star studded dud of an attempt at movie making. You shouldn't be surprised if something similar happens at your theater also. Hard Pass!!