It's good to experience a transmogrification of the 80s in the middle of all this 70s revivalism, even if the film - supposedly set in '85 - does look like both ends of that decade. Less varied, though, is the choice of music in all existing 80s retrospectives: Nena's 99 Red Balloons is now to be heard, after Grosse Pointe Blank and Boogie Nights, in The Wedding Singer (always in the original German version, for the fun of it). On the subject of variety, this romantic comedy may be nicer than many others, not least thanks to the leading actors Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, but who wants to see the same stuff in the same mould as in, take Eat Your Heart Out?

The attacks on Julia by her fellow beings are portrayed as annoying, but she doesn't know how to defend herself properly. There is the old man who pinches her bottom at work and makes suggestive movements with his mouth and the dear mama, who wants to marry her off as soon as possible, before she gets old and ugly. Robbie's friend Sammy, another of Julia's colleagues at work, wants to lay her and all other women who work there, and Holly advises Julia to show more cleavage, as this works wonders on the atmosphere at work. Julia herself does not dare to discuss her true feelings about where the wedding is to take place. Even when her boyfriend asks her if she really means "no" when she agrees to his plans can she stand by her own opinions. In Forget Paris in 1995 a woman almost calls off her wedding because her fiancé addresses her as "Mrs", followed by his first and last names. In The Wedding Singer, set 10 years earlier, Julia tries out, in front of a mirror, which of the names of her potential husbands goes better with "Mrs".

The writing team, composed of Tim Herlihy (who is also in the film as bartender Rudy), Carrie "Princess Leia Organa" Fisher and Judd Apatow (who produced Jim Carrey's Cable Guy) - of which the last two are neither mentioned in the credits - seems to have big problems with gender: there is no other explanation for the surfeit of relevant jokes which really have no claim to be humorous. Alexis Arquette, although mentioned in the opening credits, has no lines and, as George seems to be parodying his own short big screen debut as a baroque queen punk in Down and Out in Beverly Hills. He is a member of Robbie's band and has to take the mike when Robbie is unable to himself. George's problem, unlikely for a camp figure in general and for Arquette alias Eva Destruction in particular, is that he has only one song up his sleeve, which has to be reiterated again and again if needed. He, neither male nor female, is always the laughing-stock. Luckily Arquette knows at least enough to get something out of this role. There is also a grotesque "lady with sideburns" who assumingly will never get a partner.

Other gender jokes are supplied by an old drunkard who fulfils Sammy's wish in a way Sammy didn't expect when he said he wished he had someone who would take him in his arms and tell him everything was going to be all right. Holly wants to see the special church kiss which Julia is failing to describe properly. Glenn not being there, Julia is going to demonstrate it straight on Holly herself. Holly is appalled and points out Robbie who is also standing around. Since Holly as yet knows nothing of the blossoming romance between Julia and Robbie, one wonders why she refuses a kiss from a woman for "educational purposes" while encouraging a mixed-sex kiss, unless it just happens to fit in with the plot. Later Robbie is physically and verbally attacked by Glenn, who wants to know if he doesn't go for women because he refused Holly when, as a result of this very convincing demonstration, she invites him into her bedroom. In all this sexual ambiguity, Billy Idol's one-liner, "Chicken or fish?", creates some amusement among gay audiences when he shoves Glenn out of shot with a food trolley in a plane. Besides the flat humour intended for a hetero audience this is, of course, (inadvertantly?) a play on his bisexuality (only rumoured in the mid 80s), and the notorious "mussels or snails?" speech from Spartacus.
 

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Official link: http://www.weddingsinger.com