How do you do,
The Wedding Singer was the movie that starred Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore and it deals with the two witnessing weddings and falling for each other as they plan their own. In short, it's a run of the mill rom-com. In fact, if you look carefully, you might note Robbie and Julia's initials match with that of Romeo and Juliet, though it does seem a remarkable coincidence. It has Adam Sandler doing his normal cynical, wincing shtick in the movie, yet showing a vulnerable side to him, while Drew Barrymore, the little girl who appeared in E.T. The Extraterrestrial, now grown up into a lovely actress, is the center of attention for everyone from two timing sweethearts to perverts. They are with a bunch of unknowns, mostly.
Much of the plot is basically the two who are engaged to another person and are dealing with the fact their intendeds are not what they thought they were while they wrestle with their feelings. For example, Robbie is getting married at the start, only for his bride to run out on him. Why did she run out? Because she doesn't want to be tied down to a man who lives in his sister's basement and is payed meatballs for music lessons, plus shows no interest in seeing the world. This practically reminds one of An Officer and a Gentleman where a cadet drops out of the academy to marry a girl, only for her to reject him that he is planning to be a civilian and not a Naval aviator. Julia is also engaged, but her fiance is as slow as molasses in setting up a date. When he does, he then disappears and is revealed to be having a girlfriend on the side.
The latter gets most of the screen time. In fact, the movie is all about Julia finding out her fiance is not what she thought he was when the cheating factor is added. However, like most Hollywood movies it leaves out one item: Julia is technically seeing another man behind her fiance's back, which the movie shows is a good thing. Cheating on someone is wrong, it doesn't matter if the other person is cheating too. It's the double standard done with Titanic, but it does a few things differently. With Cal and Rose, we see a spoiled rich guy who is very abusive with Rose, a coward who flees from death when the ship is sinking and lets others die for him, and is willing to shoot at his own fiancee. Julia's fiance is not as wicked as Rose's in that sense and one could feel for them still. However, because he is cheating on her and not intending to reform it puts him into the same spot as standard bad fiance trope. In the meantime, Julia is given a free pass to be with Robbie, despite the fact that they don't express their feelings openingly. One example, when someone thinks of them as a couple they deny it and claim to be siblings. Even when they are strained, Julia can't say her soon to be husband's name without getting upset and gets all flustered at saying Robbie's (which makes Robbie think she is moving on).
Much of the plot is basically the two who are engaged to another person and are dealing with the fact their intendeds are not what they thought they were while they wrestle with their feelings. For example, Robbie is getting married at the start, only for his bride to run out on him. Why did she run out? Because she doesn't want to be tied down to a man who lives in his sister's basement and is payed meatballs for music lessons, plus shows no interest in seeing the world. This practically reminds one of An Officer and a Gentleman where a cadet drops out of the academy to marry a girl, only for her to reject him that he is planning to be a civilian and not a Naval aviator. Julia is also engaged, but her fiance is as slow as molasses in setting up a date. When he does, he then disappears and is revealed to be having a girlfriend on the side.
The latter gets most of the screen time. In fact, the movie is all about Julia finding out her fiance is not what she thought he was when the cheating factor is added. However, like most Hollywood movies it leaves out one item: Julia is technically seeing another man behind her fiance's back, which the movie shows is a good thing. Cheating on someone is wrong, it doesn't matter if the other person is cheating too. It's the double standard done with Titanic, but it does a few things differently. With Cal and Rose, we see a spoiled rich guy who is very abusive with Rose, a coward who flees from death when the ship is sinking and lets others die for him, and is willing to shoot at his own fiancee. Julia's fiance is not as wicked as Rose's in that sense and one could feel for them still. However, because he is cheating on her and not intending to reform it puts him into the same spot as standard bad fiance trope. In the meantime, Julia is given a free pass to be with Robbie, despite the fact that they don't express their feelings openingly. One example, when someone thinks of them as a couple they deny it and claim to be siblings. Even when they are strained, Julia can't say her soon to be husband's name without getting upset and gets all flustered at saying Robbie's (which makes Robbie think she is moving on).
One thing that bothers me in The Wedding Singer is the disrespect for its leading lady. Case in point, when Julia is invited by Robbie to dance with one of the boys in the Bar Mitzvah party, we see an old man say something perverted and he high fives with a young boy next to him. I will say that no matter how senile they got, an old man like that never said that or high fived a boy after saying it like he did in the movie where I was from in 1998; it sets a bad example for the children. Even the boy she dances with can't resist the urge to give her a squeeze in the bottom, though Julia laughs it off since he is just a child (a grown up man in the same position would have gotten slapped in the face). Of course, this form of harassment is presented as a joke, if not shown a loophole that children can get away with things (yet this is a party that celebrates a boy becoming a man where such a loophole no longer exists). Julia even kisses the kid at the end. Practically going on the line of "boys will be boys", itself a form a enabling sexism. If you really want this kind of treatment to end, the teaching doesn't happen when he is eighteen or twenty-one. It should be done as soon as possible, like when he is entering Kindergarten. Until they put etiquette into the curriculum for five year olds, it looks like the only people who can teach the boy how to treat the ladies are his parents. Not only that, but the movie tries to deflect the whole thing by having Robbie take a girl for a partner and make her do the same to him (feminists out there are creeped out by some Mederma commercial, which tells me they would find a grown man putting a prepubescent girl's hands on his butt to be just as heinous). An elderly couple is also shown doing that to each other, just as the gay couple in the movie, primarily to make one dismiss as consensual (which is a good enough point. There are certain privileges to one's body you could give to your spouse or partner that no stranger or friend would ever get, like exploring your private parts). Then it becomes unnoticeable because everyone is doing, which is the wrong message to send. It brings up that old question, if so and so jumped off a bridge would you?
That is not the only one. Earlier in the film, someone slaps Julia on her butt while she is carrying dishes away. Though it does show the man being creepy, it mostly stereotypes the man as just another guy who is many years older without taking into consideration that men her age or younger can also harass people. At least, it's noticeable by many, including Mr. Cieply, that harassment is not good natured, especially such gropes as shown. In the previous scene, he states "It seemed innocent enough in 1998; but 19 years later, the sequence is bristling with sexual and even legal issues. Is the bar mitzvah boy guilty of abuse, and destined, at a minimum, for some stern counseling lest he wind up in a Title IX proceeding at his future college? Or is Julia in trouble for encouraging sexual contact with a minor – something that could bring a criminal charge if someone chose to pursue it"[1].
Like most rom-coms, The Wedding Singer is caked by cliches. Boy meets girl, girl is with a boring guy already, boy and girl see each other and fall for each other, there is a conflict, then the last minute chase to something to spill out their feelings. At least, sex is not put in. There is also the old woman who is celebrating her anniversary with her husband and she is singing then, while taking lessons from Robbie. Of course, they paint her as a horny older woman on par with The Producers' Little Old Ladies. These all can detract from the positive parts of the movie, though.
That is not the only one. Earlier in the film, someone slaps Julia on her butt while she is carrying dishes away. Though it does show the man being creepy, it mostly stereotypes the man as just another guy who is many years older without taking into consideration that men her age or younger can also harass people. At least, it's noticeable by many, including Mr. Cieply, that harassment is not good natured, especially such gropes as shown. In the previous scene, he states "It seemed innocent enough in 1998; but 19 years later, the sequence is bristling with sexual and even legal issues. Is the bar mitzvah boy guilty of abuse, and destined, at a minimum, for some stern counseling lest he wind up in a Title IX proceeding at his future college? Or is Julia in trouble for encouraging sexual contact with a minor – something that could bring a criminal charge if someone chose to pursue it"[1].
Like most rom-coms, The Wedding Singer is caked by cliches. Boy meets girl, girl is with a boring guy already, boy and girl see each other and fall for each other, there is a conflict, then the last minute chase to something to spill out their feelings. At least, sex is not put in. There is also the old woman who is celebrating her anniversary with her husband and she is singing then, while taking lessons from Robbie. Of course, they paint her as a horny older woman on par with The Producers' Little Old Ladies. These all can detract from the positive parts of the movie, though.
The Wedding Singer has a bit of 1980s nostalgia about it. The men sport those curled perms, we see a DeLorean car, there are the 1980s bands on MTV and so on. In fact, The Wedding Singer foreshadows this 1980s nostalgia feeling that is currently being felt with the show The Goldbergs. Content wise, it's secular, not even going into too much detail in the Bar Mitzvah scene and Julia's fiance is planning to get married in Vegas, possibly in some secular chapel. For the LGBT people, The Wedding Singer seems progressive for its time: there's a same-sex couple consisting of men who are shown to be a functioning couple, and they even help with Robbie when he is jilted at the altar. Robbie also has a transgender named George in the band (might have come out as a joke in 1998 of a woman named George, but now it's become more of "ahead of its time" to most modern eyes) who is played by a transgender actress, the late Alexis Arquette. Of course, George is mostly a background piece to exist as avatar for the transgender audience, yet doesn't really contribute to the plot on a large scale (but then again, why do that when they can just show up? That seems to be the mindset of many recent hits where they stuff as many minority representations only to not develop the characters or make a contribution to the plot). I am sure that it would be surprising to many, just like looking over older movies and finding one with a black hero or an independent woman in a time when the Civil Rights Era was new or Second Wave Feminism was yet to happen. But, it does show that nothing is new under the sun.
If there is a legacy with The Wedding Singer, it shows mostly how Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore have excellent chemistry, which explains why they are paired again in 50 First Dates.
If there is a legacy with The Wedding Singer, it shows mostly how Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore have excellent chemistry, which explains why they are paired again in 50 First Dates.
Notes.
^1. Cieply, Michael, "Lessons From the Wedding Singer:" Deadline Hollywood. (2017).
Sources.
Cieply, Michael, "Lessons From the Wedding Singer:" Deadline Hollywood. http://deadline.com/2017/11/lessons-from-wedding-singer-on-screen-gropes-are-past-1202206684/ (2017).
No comments:
Post a Comment