Customer Reviews

Kiss the Bride

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

KISS THE BRIDE seems to be searching for the audience that fell in love with the Indie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", in an Italian variant of a similar story. Somehow this effort fails to gel. Written, Directed and Acted by Vanessa Parise it shows the effect that too much input from one mind can fail to see the flaws inherent in such an undertaking.

Simple story: an Italian Rhode Island family, the Sposatos, is preparing for the upcoming wedding of Danni (Amanda Detmer) and her longtime boyfriend Geoff (the sadly underused Jonathan Schaech). Danni's mother (Talia Shire) and father (Burt Young) are blissful that one of their four daughters is following the good old Italian concept of marriage and family. Danni calls her sisters to some home for the wedding: Niki (Brooke Langton) is a 'famous' TV body image who comes with her lowlife manager (Johnny Whitworth), Crissy (Vanessa Parise) who is a Wall Street marvel yet unhappy, and Toni (Monet Mazur) who arrives on a motorcycle with her surprising Lesbian lover. It is Danni's one simple wish that gathering the disparate sisters will restore the lost family ties she regrets.

Mix these ingredients (like the wonderful shots of Italian cooking that abound in this film!) and out comes a series of changes in the relationships of the sisters and the whole concept of the nuclear Italian family unit. Entertaining at times, the film suffers from too shallow characterizations from the sisters to make us care for their individual plights.

Not a bad movie, just not a memorable one. Grady Harp, February 2005

An Italian family prepares for an upcoming wedding. The recipe for disaster: 3 fighting sisters, 2 family squabbles, 1 ex-boyfriend and a partridge in a pear tree. Add a splash of Italian culture to the subplot and stew. This movie is equal parts trite and entertaining, but the cast is surprisingly good with standout performances by Jonathan Schaech and Talia Shire. In a not-so-clever twist, one sister brings home her lesbian lover (Alyssa Milano) simply for the shock value. By the end of the film, the outsider shows everyone who's the boss. -Cynthia Gunnells, CeleGAYtions

I am getting married next month... And I am looking for a tearjerker - you know something that expresses the range of emotions involved with a wedding: from exuberantly happy to some strange sad moods. Anyway, this movie did absolutely *nothing* for me. Completely predictable, bad editing and writing and strange visual shots. Some of the actresses are cute (and some are better than others) but there was no character development. I hardly ever feel that a movie is a waste of my time. Why did I finish it? Because I kept hoping it would get better and it never did.

First of all, I've read a couple of the other reviews on here, and I'm honestly flabbergasted at what some people are saying. "It's a Big Fat Greek Wedding knockoff"?????? Did you watch the same movie? Kiss the Bride was never supposed to be a comedy-or even is remotely like BFGW, other than they both involve large families.

Ok, on to the actual movie-Kiss the Bride is a poignant drama about four sisters who have grown up to become four very different people and are all thrown back together during one of the sister's wedding. I admit that at times the movie is a little too melodramatic, but coming from a large family myself, I can honestly say that most of the drama is very "real". That's probably why I like it so much-it deals with real issues and doesn't try to make everything all nice and pretty. I admit it has a "happy ending", but that doesn't demean the struggles that the girls all went through to get to that point-It IS possible to have a serious drama with a happy ending!

The leads (four girls) acting is all top-notch; although, at times the fiance's and boyfriends performances came across a little over the top. This is an indie film, and they made due with the best they could find.

I can't say enough though how "real" these characters are. Instead of fitting the stereotypes, they are complex and have equally complex relationships with each other. (Again, referring to the four girls)

In the end, everything just fits together to create an emotionally charged and fulfilling movie. One of my favorites!

This was a good movie, but not the best of its kind. Sean Patrick Flanery doesn't appear until 20 minutes into the movie. To my way of thinking that is 20 minutes wasted. Interesting pairing of Talia Shire and Burt Young from the original Rocky movie.

this movie went nowhere. a typical family with predictable outcomes. i didn't laugh once, cry or express any emotions whatsoever throughout the entire film. often i wondered, "is it over yet?" sorry, but this movie is horrifically lame.

I laughed, I cried. So entertaining -- loved it. We need more movies like this one. I want to see it on the big screen.

This is a fun sweet and heart-felt story. The lead characters go to show you that strong women can carry a movie. The story is poignant without being overbearing and the quirky, amusing characters really connect in an engaging way. Buy this movie if you like edgy character driven stories with heart.

Horrible family you care nothing for, and nobody you'd want in your own, and that's saying a lot since every family on earth is dysfunctional. Even the nutty grandmother makes you want to slap her. Hell, I really want to slap everyone on the cast, crew, and the writers. I bought this for 5 bucks, and it wasn't worth 5 cents. These people are unsympathetic, unbelievable, and totally made up. The women wear too much eye-liner and spend most of the film rolling their eyes at each other and showing their midriffs. I bought the movie because of Johnathan Schaech (based--okay--on his pretty face and his presence in That Thing You Do), but he's not even in it that much. He's better looking than all the girls in it too--including the phony poser lesbian with the fabulous midriff when Alyssa dumps her. I fast forwarded through this after the first half, pausing occasionally to hear dialogue that made Dumb and Dumber look like Hemingway.

In summation, if you like this movie, you have been dumbed down by the evil Hollywood machine, and I suggest you check out good foreign films like A Good Marriage and beautiful scandals like Valmont immediately. There is no excuse for liking unmoving, plastic dreck of this nature.

Character studies of dysfunctional families is a fairly common comedy device. However, in most such efforts, there are enough likable traits to counterbalance the unlikeable ones. We found no redeeming qualities in any of the major characters. Even the bride (who is supposed to carry the film) seemed fake and unlikeable. We watched about 20 minutes of this DVD and ditched it in favor of something else. For a much better "quirky family" movie, wait for "The Family Stone" to come out on DVD.