Wedding tapes are a bit rubbish aren’t they? I sat down and watched my parents one on the eve of their anniversary and it was, well… shit. What they need is more humour, so count on comedian Rufus Hound in his first acting role to spice one up in The Wedding Video.
The Wedding Video sees two brothers, Tim (Robert Webb, Magicians) and Raif (Hound), on the eve of Tim’s wedding. He’s getting married to former wild child turned classy and proper Chesire daughter Sasika (Lucy Punch, Bad Teacher), with Raif filming the entire build up to the event as a present to the couple. Whilst Tim’s proper white collar work ethic gets the better of him and he develops more pressure on his upcoming nuptials, Raif develops a bond with Sasika; who just wants to be free of the wedding her mother (Harriet Walter, Atonement) is busy organising for her; bringing out the Sasika of old.
What is most enjoyable about The Wedding Video is Hound’s acting in his full acting debut. I fully expected him to play second fiddle to the more experienced Webb, but thankfully he’s given a ball and runs with it, delivering a much better performance than expected; he gets the comedy side of acting bang on (not surprising considering he’s an experience comedian) but his vulnerable side is shown and is believable.
Punch was quite good as Sasika showing off her serious, comedic and poignant styles in a challenging role in the awkwardly position as the forgotten bride, and Webb is likeable as always but too similar to his Peep Show partner David Mitchell at times. Still, Tim is a bit of a workaholic but knows when to stop and have a marvellous stag do, which makes him an entirely human character (who Webb brings to life),though a bigger role would have been appreciated considering how much of a backseat driver Tim feels like overall.
Director Nigel Cole (Made In Dagenham) isn’t a stranger to the romantic comedy style, but takes an innovative edge adding the ‘found footage’ technique to the genre. Otherwise he gets the emotional twist and turns of a wedding build up very well and brings out strong believable characters. The writer of Video, Tim Firth, is no slouch in the Brit rom-com department either (with previous works including Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots), and teaming up with Cole again after Calendar, this English romance is a tonic to the dirge of American rom-coms which keep coming out and ruining an otherwise okay genre.
The wedding aspect of the film is captured perfectly; it’s pretty much what you expect with the interfering mother dictating what she wants, the bride not getting a look in, and the planner going all out ordering in the butterflies that fly out of a box when the married couple kiss for the first time at the reception; in fact, most of this is in the film’s humour, and the posh Cheshire setting is a gold mine for material. The warring mothers going to town buying the best for her daughters to have the social event of the year is marvellous. Who wouldn’t want a wedding with an out of control Titanic ship for your daughter to stand on? If that doesn’t float your boat, why not have a bouquet with an iron bar, to work out those bingo wings when you throw it?!
The humour in this film is to die for; the ex-air hostess wedding planner mixing her anti-anxiety pills with alcohol is quality, but he highlight is easily what Raif and Sasika get up to with a tiger skin rug in the mansion they’re viewing for her wedding. I particularly liked Matt Berry’s (One Day) role as a struggling musician hired by Raif to be his sound-man (all he wants to do is write the first song at the wedding and play that), but what’s really good is how Cole manages to balance the funny with the poignant and serious moments.
A major problem however is the ending and twist; it’s a massive grinding of gears, which is a bit illogical even though you see it coming a mile away; I don’t particularly see why the couple that get together have to have that wedding with Tim and Sasika there and now. It’s a new relationship – what if they don’t get on with each other in a year or two? It’s quite a detachment from an otherwise quality film and soured the climax by pushing for the ultimate commitment of marriage.
The ‘found footage’ style of film isn’t something particularly well received at the moment but it’s done very well here. What’s remarkable is how good the quality of the actual camera footage is; compare this to the roughness of a bog-standard camera used in a horror film like Paranormal Activity and it’s a much nicer film to look at; the horror ones are “supposed” to look a bit rubbish to reflect how nasty of a horror film it’s meant to be, but they can’t match up to the clear cut presentation here, which gives Video, and the genre, a shot in the arm.
It’s a highly enjoyable outing, and quite watchable even for male viewers; it picks up on a gap in the market by showing a wedding from the male perspective; and is well filled with Hound breaking boundaries and making himself known as a good comedy actor. The Wedding Video is likeable and a welcome tonic to the winding down summer blockbuster season.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
