Wedding Most Strange, A

By: Robert O'Neill
In-House Review - Sep 04 2012

In order to comply with the terms of his recently deceased father's will and inherit all of his earthly possessions, Danny, a handsome, single gay Brit, must be married. He has two week's before the terms of the will expire ? which means that he has two weeks to meet a suitable partner, tie the knot and collect.

Danny is excited about the situation. He thinks he is going to get to live out his own real-life gay version of "The Bachelor" (or "Boy Meets Boy" ). He quickly (and very arrogantly) starts auditioning eager male applicants to be his potential life partner. He manages to narrow the selection down to just a few eligible young men and invites them ? along with the families ? out to his father's country house for the weekend to get to know his various prospects and make his final decision. He also invites various close friends and relatives of his own who interrogate the would-be grooms in an effort to find the best choice for Danny. But, as time starts running out and family secrets are revealed, Danny's chances of finding true love begin to seem more remote. Are these guys really after his heart or just his money?

A Wedding Most Strange is entertaining, but not without its problems. Writer/director Trevor Garlick employs strikingly colorful production design and stocks his cast with very attractive guys, but it's hard to imagine exactly what they see in Danny that keeps them competing for his affection. He seems irredeemably shallow at the start of the film, and though he grows as a character by the end, the absurdity of the whole situation makes the inevitable romance feel unearned. If you're looking for emotional depth, you're not likely to be satisfied, but the film works as a light and fluffy comedy with a few good laughs and an abundance of eye-candy.

By: B1movie

By: FilmLover

By: just a reviewer

(( THIS IS ACTUALLY A 2-STAR RATING // POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD ))

Just as in any (heterosexual) fairytale, this film introduces us to an "inheritance quandary" confronting a young Prince of a Man (notice I didn't say Handsome) who is faced with choosing---from a selection of desirable women---that person who will become his wife.

OH, WAIT...WAIT...WAIT! ....Did I get this all wrong? Oh, dear me. Perhaps I've misunderstood (though the storyline in this film, and the behaviors of its 4 male main characters, certainly make that easy to do). So, please..won't you let me start over again?

Possibly...just possibly...this story was, INSTEAD, about a Gay (or is he) young Prince of a Man, who is faced with choosing a spouse from a field of two handsome lads + one older man (and, whoa...an ex-wife). ....But, TRULY, it was difficult for me to conclude that any of these characters were Gay (altho there was one supporting character who....ahem..ahem). Most importantly, such was the case for me because I saw no Gay romantic behavior taking place between our Prince and any of his three choices. Though I suppose, relievedly for the 4 males actors involved, their script called for no lips to touch any other lips in this entire spouse selection process. In other words, none of these actor's acquaintances could ever wonder if they might, in real life, be Gay.

Lastly, much of the dialog, particularly for the supporting characters, is flip...silly...and nonsensical (at least for we non-Brits out here). While there are many of the right platitudes spoken along the way, they usually come at the wrong points in the film.

So, if any of you out there are looking for a Gay romantic film to take home, this is NOT the one which would likely do it for you. Oh, yes...production values are pretty high (only because in its genre, it is not a cheaply-American-made production). And, admittedly, there are some funny bits.

This DVD will not be making it into my Library of Gay Keepers.

By: Amos Lassen

"A Wedding Most Strange"

Choosing a Mate

Amos Lassen

Danny's father's will says that in order to get the inheritance that he is promised, he must be married. Now that he is divorced, he has just two weeks to find a spouse. The problem is that Danny is gay and he also wants what he feels is entitled to him and getting married just happens to be an issue that he can overcome. He sets up some online dates and finds a number of people who are willing to marry him even after just one date. Danny keeps them guessing and his three favorite choices have to wait until the day of the wedding itself to find out whom he has chosen.

We see early on that this is not a love story and to the writer of the screenplay, entertainment is much more important than love and compassion. I imagine that the theme of the film is something to do with love, but there is no love here. We do see Danny trying very hard to find a mate but we do not see him looking for someone to love. Danny seems to be getting married in order to protect his financial situation because he does not take the time to get to know the people that he considers to form a union with.

The movie does provide quite a few laughs but the character of Danny is never fleshed out and he comes across as a fickle and sexless person who never adds another dimension to his character. In fact, we do not care about him much less about who he marries. Like Danny, we learn nothing about his prospective spouses and we do not really care if he marries or not.

It is not just love that is missing here. Danny does not seem to care about sex and does not even go to bed with the suitors and even when the opportunity presents itself, Danny fails to take advantage of it. I just find that the idea of a man selling himself for marriage is not something that we want to represent the way the gay community lives.

I admit that I seem to have really dissed this movie but there are some good things as well. There are some really funny moments but most of the jokes just don't work. The acting, on the other hand, is uniformly excellent and I believe that the right editor and a revised script could turn this into an enjoyable film. I understand that when this film was made, it was the first to deal with gay marriage when it became legal in Quebec.

It is a comedy of complicated personal and family relationships that brings together cultures from the Eastern and Western worlds in a surprising turn of events. I was really ready for a lot of laughs when I read the premise of this film and was disappointed to find that most of it is ridiculous and tiring.