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revdorothyl at 02:24pm on 01/10/2006 under movie reviews
revdorothyl at 02:24pm on 01/10/2006 under movie reviewsI hadn't even checked the movie listings for a couple of weeks, but I happened to do so last Thursday evening, and found that the film "Confetti" was leaving town the next day. The description sounded amusing, so I decided to take a huge chance and pay full evening prices to see it.
Am I glad I saw it? Yes. Do I feel it was worth $8.75? Mmmm . . . I guess so. (It's just been so many years since I last paid full price to see a movie that my standards for what's worth more than $6 are pretty high.)
I was initially surprised by the full frontal nudity (mostly male), since that bit hadn't been included in the brief review I'd read, but after a while, I did become somewhat accustomed to it (though I still think that riding a bicycle -- tandem or not -- while au naturel would be highly uncomfortable). After the third or fourth time the film visits with the "Naturist" engaged couple in their native habitat, you start to take the dangling male appendages more or less in stride.
But what gave me more problems -- and reminded me why I've never felt the slightest interest in watching any of those wedding-related "reality" shows -- was how very realistic the personality problems displayed by at least one of the engaged couples were, as well as the attempts by certain family and friends to take over the wedding celebrations and turn them into some sort of personal showcase.
Though I never had to deal with anything QUITE so spectacularly ill-behaved or outrageous as some of the situations displayed in the movie, I have to admit that all my years in full-time ministry have left me with more than a few small "wedding scars" and a bit of PTSD where crazy brides and grooms or crazy in-laws are concerned. As a pastor, my experience suggests that the more elaborate and expensive the wedding preparations, the more ill-behaved one or more of the principle persons involved will be. By far, the weddings that I, as a pastor and counselor to the newly married couple, felt best about were the simple ones, where the focus was on the commitment the two people were making to each other and not on any of the trappings or ego-trips.
But then, at some point during the movie's progress, things got better (at least from MY perspective of wanting people to tone down the family dysfunction, because it's making my teeth hurt and reminding me of too many bad experiences).
More of the prospective brides and grooms in this comedic ensemble piece started to get their priorities straight (with more than a little help from the most functional and mutually supportive couple in the film, the gay wedding coordinators), and in the climactic "most original wedding" context scenes, I found myself actually enjoying the overly elaborate and often silly staging, because of the honesty of the sentiments being expressed. Plus, I've gotta love any wedding staged as a 1930's Busby Berkeley musical extravaganza, where the happy couples mostly elderly female relatives are got up in frilly hats and dresses and cheerfully act the part of chorus girls, while a slightly lesser number of super-annuated male relatives in top hats and tails do the chorus boy routine. Adorable!
In conclusion, if you like the off-beat "slice-of-life" mockumentary style of comedy, you'll probably thoroughly enjoy "Confetti" -- just as long as you're not already shell-shocked from too many nightmarish behind-the-scenes experiences with crazy wedding parties.
Am I glad I saw it? Yes. Do I feel it was worth $8.75? Mmmm . . . I guess so. (It's just been so many years since I last paid full price to see a movie that my standards for what's worth more than $6 are pretty high.)
I was initially surprised by the full frontal nudity (mostly male), since that bit hadn't been included in the brief review I'd read, but after a while, I did become somewhat accustomed to it (though I still think that riding a bicycle -- tandem or not -- while au naturel would be highly uncomfortable). After the third or fourth time the film visits with the "Naturist" engaged couple in their native habitat, you start to take the dangling male appendages more or less in stride.
But what gave me more problems -- and reminded me why I've never felt the slightest interest in watching any of those wedding-related "reality" shows -- was how very realistic the personality problems displayed by at least one of the engaged couples were, as well as the attempts by certain family and friends to take over the wedding celebrations and turn them into some sort of personal showcase.
Though I never had to deal with anything QUITE so spectacularly ill-behaved or outrageous as some of the situations displayed in the movie, I have to admit that all my years in full-time ministry have left me with more than a few small "wedding scars" and a bit of PTSD where crazy brides and grooms or crazy in-laws are concerned. As a pastor, my experience suggests that the more elaborate and expensive the wedding preparations, the more ill-behaved one or more of the principle persons involved will be. By far, the weddings that I, as a pastor and counselor to the newly married couple, felt best about were the simple ones, where the focus was on the commitment the two people were making to each other and not on any of the trappings or ego-trips.
But then, at some point during the movie's progress, things got better (at least from MY perspective of wanting people to tone down the family dysfunction, because it's making my teeth hurt and reminding me of too many bad experiences).
More of the prospective brides and grooms in this comedic ensemble piece started to get their priorities straight (with more than a little help from the most functional and mutually supportive couple in the film, the gay wedding coordinators), and in the climactic "most original wedding" context scenes, I found myself actually enjoying the overly elaborate and often silly staging, because of the honesty of the sentiments being expressed. Plus, I've gotta love any wedding staged as a 1930's Busby Berkeley musical extravaganza, where the happy couples mostly elderly female relatives are got up in frilly hats and dresses and cheerfully act the part of chorus girls, while a slightly lesser number of super-annuated male relatives in top hats and tails do the chorus boy routine. Adorable!
In conclusion, if you like the off-beat "slice-of-life" mockumentary style of comedy, you'll probably thoroughly enjoy "Confetti" -- just as long as you're not already shell-shocked from too many nightmarish behind-the-scenes experiences with crazy wedding parties.
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