Last Wedding

2001 "...till death do us part..."
6.1| 1h40m| en
Details

Three couples in Vancouver navigate their relationships: first jobs, first crises, professional jealousy, an affair, and lack of communication. Noah and Zipporah marry after a brief courtship. She wants to be a singer and stalls out when she fails. He's working hard at a business that may go under. Sarah and Shane are architects; he can't handle her success at a downtown firm. Leslie is a librarian, sour and prickly; her mate, Peter, is a college teacher whose head is turned by a student. Can any of these couples sort things out and stay together? Should they?

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Reviews

SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen
Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen
Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
wonderdawg "Noah! Open this (bleeping) door!" Bang! Bang! Bang! "I just want to talk!" The sound of her fists against the door echo through the courtyard like small arms fire. Cowering inside the motel room Noah (Ben Ratner) can only hope Zipporah (Frida Betrani) will go away if he remains absolutely still. No such luck. Peering through the drapes he watches in horror as she walks back from her car with a tire jack in one hand and fire in her eye. Obviously this marriage is in trouble. It began so well, too, with Noah, a salesman for a waterproofing company and Zipporah, an aspiring (and, unfortunately for her, supremely untalented) country singer, gazing into each other's eyes while the rabbi pronounced them man and wife. A few months later the marriage has sprung more leaks than the condo they share in metro Vancouver. Noah's buddies are heading for problems as well. Can Lit prof Peter (Tom Scholte) is cheating on his sedate librarian wife Leslie (Nancy Sivak) with provocative young student Laurel (Marya Delver). Struggling architect Shane (Vincent Gale) feels threatened because his newly graduated girlfriend, Sarah (Molly Parker), also an architect, has landed a job with a high profile firm. Hip, literate and darkly funny, this 2001 entry is the third film from Vancouver writer/director Bruce Sweeney. Sweeney uses the predicaments of his characters to show how relationships among today's affluent young urbanites can crumble under the stress and pressure of modern life, especially if they are not built on a strong foundation to begin with. Lack of communication, sexual betrayal, career envy, Sweeney dissects them all with savage wit and savvy insight. The director allows his cast ample freedom to explore and develop their roles and he is repaid with characters which behave as if they were modelled on real people rather than broadly drawn stereotypes. Parker and Gale won Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscars). However, the whole cast is worthy of merit with Betrani a force of nature as frustrated country singer Zipporah. (With her temperament perhaps she should have considered a career in heavy metal instead.) This is one of those rare movies in which Vancouver gets a chance to play itself. The dialogue is peppered with local references (the Cambie St. bridge, the old Expo 86 site, provincial politics). What Woody Allen does for New York Sweeney does for Vancouver. Twenty years in B.C. have given the Sarnia, Ontario native a feel for the quirky vibe of West Coast life (The movie also resembles an Allen film in the depiction of its male characters as vain, indecisive wimps who bend like willows in the wind while trying to hold their own with strong, purposeful women.) Last Wedding is full of randy humour and a decidedly unromantic view of sex. The scene in which Laurel and Peter discuss Canadian authors while engaged in a dispassionate sexual act is rumoured to be a favourite in certain academic circles.
Donald Walkinshaw Bruce Sweeney's Last Wedding is a hilarious but flawed look at three couples whose marriages all fall apart. This is the reverse of a romantic comedy. The comedy is there all right, but there are only fleeting glances at any thing that could be called romance. The film starts just before the wedding of Noah and Zipporah, the last of the three couples to tie the noose - I mean knot. From that point on, it's all downhill, as we watch how these three relationships crumple in a pile of miscommunication, and infidelity. Some of the moments in this movie are uproariously funny, but there is too much sadness in between. That is really the only flaw - the slow pace. But the acting is sensational, and there are many memorable moments - both of which definitely overshadow the pacing problems.
Enid-3 This is an amusing and believable story about three young couples who are not particularly well suited to each other. They all discover this, but one couple has to get married to find this out. The film is set in Vancouver, which, for once, is not dressed up to be some American city. It was nice to see Canadian references, such as Canada Council grants and the Cambie Street Bridge. The film is very funny in a low keyed, unhysterical, thoroughly Canadian way.
davewrites Within the genre of romantic comedies, Last Wedding stands out from the rest of the pack. It is a slightly absurd (yet very honest) portrayal of how relationships are, and how they can fail. Whether it's with hasty commitment, selfishness, or a flagrant lack of healthy communication, Last Wedding proves that our own, below-Hollywood-standard relationships cannot be ignored and that they deserve some sort of cinematic representation. Thank you Bruce Sweeney for bringing a dose of romantic realism back to the film industry. I don't know how you do it, but you turn the silver screen into a gigantic mirror for a captivating 101 minutes. You allow us the opportunity to relive our personal dating history with your own colourful brand of constructive criticism. We laugh as much as we cringe because you manage to entertain your audience without truly shaming us.

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