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Just Another Caricature of So Many Others Like It

Spanish Bolero | New Mexico | 05/03/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Another pointless movie that attempts to copy other classics like American Graffiti, Saturday Night Live, and others. It fails miserably. Most of the plot is implausible. Inexplicably, almost nothing seems to play on their vintage like radios but 50's hits. The furniture, the cars, the over idealism of the families, everything is reminiscent of a bygone era. Their favorite television shows are b/w slapstick comedies. Yet the year is 1989. Regardless, it is obvious that the producers are trying to place the setting in a time decades before it. The women gather in kitchens for coffee klatches giggling at jokes that aren't even funny. Sciorra's mother is a sweet, yet remarkably naive sort who seems to have stepped straight out of 1952. Her fiancee's mother is the same, albeit a dryer version.

Michael is an entirely immature young man, ridiculously gregarious, mostly behaving in a way that would embarass the average 12 year old. He is a handsome man, and seems to mistake pathetic and vulgar hijinks for charm. Shortly before her wedding Donna admits to Lana that she frequently feels like "killing" Michael, but then she "sees him." She says nothing about his personality, mentions no fine atributes of character. Sciorra is 'marrying a face.' Sciorra seems to think she can, through sheer force of her personality, win a mature husband out of a man who will never grow up. Any man who would get the bright idea to party with "the guys" on his wedding night simply doesn't 'get it' and probably never will.

At times Sciorra is her own worst enemy. It is the middle of the night, hours before the wedding and she sneaks her fiancee in and they make love. By morning time, they are completely exhausted from staying up all night for days on end, non-stop partying, vicious fighting. On the ride to the church Sciorra looks anything but what a woman about to be married should look like. Though beautiful, she has a pallor that can only be attributed to fatigue and emotional stress. She looks resigned to her fate, profoundly sad. Her father, a kindly sort, offers her an escape. He gently reminds her that it is not too late to back out of a near certain disaster. It is clear that is he is pained to hand over his beloved daughter to this overgrown jester. But Sciorra is doggedly determined; she is going to marry 'the face.'

The wedding party is a disaster when Michael gets the idea that he and his buddies should go out after the reception is over. A vicious argument follows. The end is simply anticlimactic. The couple begin an uncertain yet most predictably disastrous life, and will probably raise equally troubled children."