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IN the good old days, they said love and marriage went together like a horse and carriage. Not anymore. It’s more like marriage and divorce. And films have been taking good swipes at the institution of marriage. License to Wed is another such film but it cannot make up its mind as to which genre it should stick to. By shifting channels not only does it become trite, punny and unduly gross, but its credibility goes out of the window too. Ben Murphy (John Krasinski) and Sadie Jones (Mandy Moore) are in a whirlwind romance and decide to marry. But there’s a hitch. The Reverend Frank (Robin Williams) of St Augustine’s, a long-standing family friend, insists on their passing a three-week patented, fool-proof marriage prep course (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) consisting of some outlandish exercises which among other things, includes bugging the bedroom of the prospective marriage partners. What begins as mildly amusing comedy takes a serious turn, the story that is, when the two lovers are stifled, under pressure and plain hassled. The film is not only predictable but also replete with slapstick and base American humour in which breaking wind seems to have become a national pastime. Director Ken Kwapis is handicapped by a pathetic screenplay and Robin Williams is made to ham his way about. He is the proverbial fly in the ointment, accompanied by a totally irrelevant midget altar boy (Josh Flitter) who only compounds an already hopeless story. The saving grace, if one has to look for it, is a couple of good cameos by Sadie’s happily divorced sister Lindsey (Christine Taylor), her confidante Carlsyle (Eric Christian Olsen) and Ben’s side-kick Joe who just sniggers at him going through that three-week routine. Peter Strauss can scarcely be (recognised as) her dad and his many dashingly handsome roles include one opposite Candice Bergen in Soldier Blue, one of the first Hollywood films, which showed the American Indian in proper perspective. But to get back to our story, poor Ben and Sadie reach break point and if one leaves one’s thinking faculties safely locked away in a cupboard the Jamaican holiday provides a solution. May be director Kwapis was running out of raw stock. Or patience. Or both. License to Wed is just 100 minutes but it seems ever so long and not even an enthusiastic performance by John Krasinski can justify sitting through this apology of an entertainer with Robin Williams in easily the worst performance of his career.
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