Wedding Day

Movies — By Chris Hlad on March 3, 2012 at 7:09 pm

 

Movie Review

Wedding Day

By Chris Hlad

I am absolutely convinced that movies are changing. I suppose this is the nature of life and art; things need to change in order to evolve and avoid becoming redundant. This is good, of course, but when it comes to the cinema, it can be a bit blurry.

Naturally, there are exceptions, but I leave a good percentage of the movies I’ve seen recently feeling remotely amused at best, and a lot of this is my own fault. I refuse to list any specifics because that is absolutely classless, but there are movies that I’ve seen on the big screen for all the wrong reasons. One reason is because I’m human and get caught up in the hype (hey, if this movie has a big opening, there’s got to be a reason for it). The other reason is that the movie is so big that there is no way the DVD copy is going to translate visually on my T.V. nearly as well as on the big screen.

Both of these are valid points, sure, but it’s also the reason I leave movies feeling only remotely amused most of the time. Let’s face it, most visually stunning movies are CGI based, and the great majority of films that have big openings are big productions chock full of visual effects.

And I get it, but I miss the humanity. No matter how good CGI continues to get, it’s still CGI. And, unfortunately, I feel like the story is being sacrificed for effects simply because it can.

Hence my relief after seeing “Wedding Day”, a Stephanie Drapeau and André Gordon’s Four Horsemen Films and Soular Entertainment Production written and directed by André Gordon and Dale Fabrigar. This movie didn’t rely on anything but a good story, believable dialogue, solid acting and an engaging plot. And this is what it’s all about.

“Wedding Day” was a movie that required active participation from the viewer, because the story wasn’t simple. Sometimes this can be annoying; I may be a simpleton, but I really believe that when watching a movie requires too much work to figure out what the writer or director is getting at, it loses some entertainment value. And just because a story is confusing (and we’ve all seen films where the writer goes out of his way to show you how clever he is and how ignorant you are), it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.

Good storytelling and pacing have to come into play, and “Wedding Day” gets it right. Aside from some flashback scenes, the film takes place in the course of a day (hence the tagline ‘When the best day of your life becomes your worst nightmare’) so the pacing was crucial and I was truly invested in the characters, all without CGI and constant action. Well done, Andre’ and Dale, well done. And the payoff at the end? You won’t be disappointed.

“Wedding Day” will entertain and engage you. If only all ‘real life’ weddings would do the same.

For more information visit www.weddingdaymovie.net.