Last Wedding teaches us that communication in relationships is crucial. The film shows us this by doing the opposite. Bruce Sweeney wrote and directed 3 tangent stories about guys who are strong friends and the ways their relationships fall apart.
Noah (Benjamin Ratner) has known Zipporah (Frida Betrani) for 6 months. She is in a rush to get married. The wedding seems to be more important than the relationship. They get married.
Zipporah wasn't all that verbal before the wedding. She is a fountain of conversation by comparison to her lack of being verbal after the wedding. When she does reach out, he lashes out because he has been ignored.
Literature professor Peter (Tom Scholte) is with Leslie (Nancy Sivak), a librarian. Peter is tempted by one of his students. Leslie isn't bad; she's just not Laurel.
Shane (Vincent Gale) is in good shape. He is an architect with Sarah (Molly Parker), who is about to graduate. Sarah lands a great job at an impressive firm, but that makes Shane upset.
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Sweeney is a little too on the nose in portraying the dynamics of the relationships. Knows how to push buttons in the viewer. That said, Sweeney draws the male characters better than the female characters. We know their motivations better than their female counterparts. Leslie barely shows up as a character so we don't necessarily know why Peter is having trouble with Leslie.
Betrani and Scholte are married in real life, though we don't know whether they were together until after the film. Putting them in different couples on screen has its merits as would putting them in the same couple in the film.
The beauty of this film over a similar American film is that Sweeney shows real people struggling in relationships. The actors fall into their characters, not worried about how stupid or awkward they might be.
The architecture theme in a film set and filmed in Vancouver in 2001 offers up a time capsule of perspective for where Vancouver is going. A bonus if you know a little Vancouver history.
The film winds down at a good pace to its conclusion. Bad editing is more obvious than good editing, though good editing should be praised more often.
Last Wedding might not be a good first date film unless you want to have a conversation about how important communication is in a relationship. If you are 4-5 dates into a relationship, this film should open up some good conversation.
The film won Best Canadian Film from the Toronto Film Critics Association. Last Wedding opened the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.
photo credit: Last Wedding film
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