Movie Summary of The Magic of Belle Isle by Michael The Moviegoer

THE MAGIC OF BELLE ISLE = **1/2

“High Fructose Corn Syrup”

It appears that Rob Reiner has entered his soft years. The director of edgy hits like “Misery,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “A Few Good Men” has recently been trying to re-capture the youthful magic of his coming-of-age hit “Stand By Me”. His charming 2010 family film “Flipped” was a welcome return to that soft stuff. But now it’s probably time for Reiner to do something great again. “The Magic Of Belle Isle” is not it.

Morgan Freeman plays a wheelchair-bound alcoholic author who spends the summer taking care of a dog at Dave’s place (the movie was once titled “Summer At Dog Dave’s” – eeesh!!). Virginia Madsen lives next door. She’s a single mom raising three young girls, the oldest played by Madeline Carroll who was also in Reiner’s “Flipped”. But it’s young Finnegan played by Emma Fuhrmann who brings warmth and enchantment into Freeman’s dead-end life. She wants to be an author. So she recruits Freeman to be her mentor for the summer. Freeman helps her learn how to use her imagination when creating stories.

All this is wonderful and inspiring family entertainment. If it had the gritty rough edges of Reiner’s earlier work it could be a truly great film. But the sentimentality is poured on thick. Like the perfect pancake ruined from being drowned in too much syrup. You have to be careful not to slip into a sugar coma.

Perhaps the worst thing about this movie is how Reiner portrays a mentally disabled character. Ash Christian irritatingly plays this character by literally hopping around like a bunny rabbit. Has Rob Reiner ever met a mentally disabled person? Reiner had a similar character in his last movie “Flipped”. I mentioned in my review of that film how Reiner’s direction of a mentally disabled character actually reminded me of Ben Stiller’s Simple Jack parody of such characters in “Tropic Thunder”. How could Reiner repeat such an embarrassing mistake? It comes off as insulting and offensive to mentally disabled people, and it’s a complete distraction from the better moments in the movie.

“The Magic Of Belle Isle” tries too hard to be magical despite having a great story and performances that shouldn’t require Reiner to have to work that hard.

DVD Double Feature:

Rob Reiner’s charming 2010 family film “Flipped” is the story of two 8th grade students who begin having romantic feelings for each other. The story is told from each character’s point of view flipping back and forth between their two different perspectives.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Review of Sound Of My Voice by Michael The Moviegoer.

SOUND OF MY VOICE = ***

“Brit Marling’s Brave New Voice”

Brit Marling’s latest film as both star and co-writer is called “Sound Of My Voice”. Last year the newcomer astonished with her bold sci-fi drama “Another Earth”. Now, with Marling’s latest, it’s easy to see that we’re dealing with a new genius talent in the unlikely package of a girl with supermodel good looks.

Both of Marling’s films take high concept science fiction and present it in the barest of methods. In dialogue so compelling that our own imaginations provide the special effects the films lack.

“Sound Of My Voice” can be easily classified as a sci-fi time-travel thriller. Yet the film is as talky as a Woody Allen movie, has no special effects or action sequences, and mostly takes place in the basement of a suburban home. If it sounds like that might not appeal to you, please note that “Sound Of My Voice” is filled with suspense so intense you won’t even notice that nothing ever explodes in this movie. With a running time of only 85 minutes, it certainly doesn’t hurt to give it a chance. You’ll be rewarded by one of the best twist endings of the year. It will surely cause you to gasp out loud.

Co-writer and star Brit Marling plays Maggie, the leader of a strange cult. She claims to have time-traveled back from the year 2054. She uses her hypnotic stories to recruit other followers. Two would-be journalists try to infiltrate the cult with a hidden camera to document Maggie’s brainwashing sessions. The excitement builds when one of them is recruited to help kidnap a little girl. The mystery of why is what leads to the jawdropping climax.

With “Another Earth” and “Sound Of My Voice”, Brit Marling should be as celebrated a new voice as M. Night Shyamalan was after the success of “The Sixth Sense”. She’s a totally unique cinematic storyteller. Let’s hope Hollywood never recruits her to join their cult of brain-dead romantic comedies.

DVD Double Feature:

In 2001’s “Happy Accidents” Vincent D’Onofrio tells Marisa Tomei that he has traveled back in time from the year 2439. They fall in love and a strange yet very intriguing romantic comedy is born. Again, there are no special effects and no scenes that take place in the future. That’s because we, like Tomei, are never meant to be completely sure if he is telling the truth.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Review of Dark Shadows by Michael The Moviegoer

DARK SHADOWS = ***

“A Darkness At Collinwood”

When I first heard that Tim Burton would make a film of “Dark Shadows”, I imagined the Tim Burton of “Sleepy Hollow” and “Sweeney Todd”. After all, the original “Dark Shadows”, a 1960s afternoon TV soap opera, was an epic gothic romance featuring vampires, witches and werewolves. Something like if Charlotte Bronte had written a romantic vampire tale. So, reviving “Dark Shadows” in a post-“Twilight” Hollywood seemed like an excellent idea.

But when the trailer for “Dark Shadows” was unleashed a few months ago, it was sadly obvious that this was the Tim Burton of “Ed Wood” and “Mars Attacks”. It looked like a silly parody of 70s pop culture in the tradition of “The Brady Bunch Movie”. Hard core “Dark Shadows” fans were furious and began spewing their hatred for this film all over the internet.

But when you consider that the original “Dark Shadows” television production existed in a time when afternoon soaps were sometimes broadcast live, and even the pre-recorded episodes had a budget allowing for only a single take of each scene, the “Dark Shadows” TV series actually looked like it could have been directed by Ed Wood himself. Perhaps that’s what Tim Burton loved about the original show. Yet that also explains the fans’ anger over what he’s done to it. They have yet to see a serious production made of the “Dark Shadows” story in a style that even Charlotte Bronte fans might embrace.

But now that I’ve seen Burton’s film, the trailer for it seems ridiculous. Every comic moment from the nearly 2-hour film is included in the 2-minute trailer to the music of Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly”. The good news is that Burton’s film is much better than the way it’s being advertised. The bad news is it still won’t fully satisfy fans of the original show.

The plot involves Barnabas Collins who, 200 years ago, was cursed to become a vampire by jealous witch Angelique when Barnabas wanted to marry another. After being chained in his coffin for two centuries, he is unearthed in 1972 (the year after the original TV series ended). Here he discovers that the Collins family’s current governess looks a lot like his long lost love, but jealous Angelique is still around to prevent them from being together. The story unfolds in the town of Collinsport, Maine, and mostly on the grounds of the great Collinwood estate.

It’s at this point where the plot similarities between Burton’s film and the original series come to a screeching halt. For fans of the original, you’ll need to know the following. Maggie Evans and Victoria Winters have been combined into a single character played by Bella Heathcote. Angelique, played by Eva Green, is now operating a rival fishing business[!]. Carolyn Stoddard (who was much older in the original TV show) is played by young teen Chloe Grace Moretz. Michelle Pfeiffer is Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and, unlike in the TV show, she shares Barnabas’ vampire secret. Jackie Earle Haley plays Willie Loomis, and Helena Bonham Carter is spot-on as Dr. Julie Hoffman.

Of course, I’ve saved the best for last. Johnny Depp, in his eighth film with Burton, is wonderfully creepy as Barnabas despite having moonlight-colored skin. The trailer makes it look as though Depp’s Barnabas is a combination of Edward Scissorhands and Maxwell Smart. But after seeing the movie I’m happy to say that Depp has given remarkable new life (or death) to this romantic vampire character. He may look weird, but his performance is outstanding.

Jonathan Frid, who played the original Barnabas and sadly passed away last month, has a lightning-strike-short cameo as a party guest. Quentin Collins, a character completely missing from Burton’s film, was originally played by David Selby who also has a cameo that lasts a few milliseconds. Why couldn’t Burton give these actors a little more to do than just walk past the camera like extras? Especially considering that Selby had a great supporting role as a lawyer in 2010’s “The Social Network”.

As fun as this movie is, Burton has committed one unforgivable act for which he should be severely punished. Robert Cobert’s original music from the TV series is entirely replaced by a generic-sounding Danny Elfman score. The music from the TV series is as iconic to fans as the characters, costumes, stories and sets. Removing that music from this movie makes absolutely no sense. To make matters worse, the haunting opening theme is replaced by The Moody Blues’ 1972 hit “Nights In White Satin”. Hey Burton, they’re singing Satin, not Satan!

DVD Double Feature:

No other daytime TV soap opera in history has been popular enough to get adapted into a theatrical film, and I’m not talking about Tim Burton’s new film. In 1970, at the height of the TV series’ popularity, the original cast made a feature film called “House Of Dark Shadows”. It was directed by series creator Dan Curtis and it’s one of the best vampire movies of all time. It would be a lot of fun to watch and compare both films, especially to discover Robert Cobert’s original music which is as intensely menacing as anything Bernard Herrmann ever composed. Shame on Tim Burton for not honoring that part of “Dark Shadows”.

Michael The Moviegoer

Review of the movie Hysteria by Michael The Moviegoer.

HYSTERIA = ***1/2

“Good Vibrations”

Severely undersexed women in Victorian-era England were diagnosed with hysteria when all they really were was horny. This leads a doctor to invent the world’s first vibrator as a method of manual massage that essentially replaced the role he played in treating his patients with his own hand. The movie “Hysteria” is a wonderfully entertaining yet fictionalized version of these true events.

Hugh Dancy plays the young doctor Mortimer Granville who finds a job at a women’s clinic run by Jonathan Pryce. The young doctor develops his own romantic interests between Pryce’s two daughters played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Felicity Jones.

Rupert Everett has his best supporting role since “My Best Friend’s Wedding” as Granville’s friend who is obsessed with all the world-changing new gadgets being invented during this period, especially the telephone. Everett’s attempt to invent an electronic feather-duster is what leads to Granville’s idea of a vibrator as a cure for all women’s problems, and as a way to give his hand some much-needed rest.

Director Tanya Wexler has made a luscious period comedy that is as giddily pleasurable as the cure-all method employed in the film’s story. This oddball charmer of a movie is a near-perfect gem. But they could have gone a step further and created a cult movie classic by doing it as a musical! Broadway, are you there?

DVD Double Feature:

2004’s “Kinsey” stars Liam Neeson as human sexual researcher Alfred Kinsey. This true story is more serious drama than comedy, dealing more with the controversy surrounding Kinsey’s publication of his findings in 1948.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Summary of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Michael The Moviegoer.

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL = ***

“Senior Moments”

British senior citizens who are nearing life’s check-out time decide to check-in to a retirement hotel in India that is advertised as being exotic and luxurious but is really anything but. The British retirees are played by some of the screen’s greatest living actors. Among them, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy to name a few. “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” also stars Judi Tench, re-teaming here with director John Madden who directed Dench to an Oscar in “Shakespeare In Love”.

The run-down hotel is a mom-and-son operation. The son is played by Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”). He is the movie’s weakest link. Clearly not up to the task of performing with these British thespians, Patel’s hyperactive performance has him bouncing off the walls with forced energy.

But the majestic ensemble of British actors aren’t phased by Patel’s misguided performance. Each have their own individual stories and sub-plots that unfold when Patel is off-screen. During these moments is when this movie really shines.

While Smith, Nighy and Dench are lethally entertaining in their bits, Tom Wilkinson becomes the emotional center of the film once his backstory is revealed. Wilkinson plays a high court judge with unfinished personal business he left behind in Inida as a child. Now, with health problems threatening his life, he returns to India to search for a long lost love. His story, as many of the others, is quite moving.

DVD Double Feature:

One-third of the 2010 film “Eat Pray Love” (the ‘Pray’ portion) is set in India. Julia Roberts arrives in India on a spiritual quest for meaning in her life. Her relationship there with Richard Jenkins suggests they might want to get a room at “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”. But Roberts holds out for Javier Bardem in the ‘Love’ portion.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Summary of The Raven by Michael The Moviegoer.

THE RAVEN = **1/2

“Nevermore”

The thought of John Cusack playing Edgar Allan Poe was so irresistible to me that I had enormous high hopes for “The Raven”. But James McTeigue has taken the safe, trendy approach to this material in making Poe into an action figure similar to what Guy Ritchie has done to Sherlock Holmes.

“The Raven” begins by telling us that not much is known about Poe’s last few days, and therefore this movie has license to create a fictional story involving a serial killer who is inspired by Poe’s stories. The local police recruit Poe to help investigate real murders like those in his books. Suddenly the film becomes a 19th-century “Se7en” with the killer getting Poe to write new stories that are published in a Baltimore newspaper.

With so much activity involving Poe and the police, the newspapers, and the local folks, how could it be that not much is known about Poe’s final days before he is found on a Baltimore park bench in the freezing cold? According to the events in this movie, everything is well-documented. As a result, the real mystery about Poe’s untimely death isn’t even dealt with at all. Not even as an attempt at fiction.

This ‘Raven’ has one thing on its mind. To be a fictitious period costume thriller about a literary icon, not unlike last year’s ridiculous Shakespeare thriller “Anonymous”.

It’s a shame that with the talent they had (Cusack as Poe is excellent) and the money, time and effort spent on a gloriously gothic period production design, they couldn’t have made a more realistic film about Edgar Allan Poe. Such a missed opportunity.

DVD Double Feature:

The stylish visuals in director James McTeigue’s work had far more successful results in 2006′s “V For Vendetta”, a futuristic thriller based on a graphic novel about terrorism in London in the year 2020. Natalie Portman stars as a naive girl being held hostage and possibly recruited by the V character, played under a phantom-like mask by Hugo Weaving. Endlessly entertaining and visually unique, nothing in this movie suggests McTeigue should have been the director to take on an Edgar Allan Poe project.

Movie Summary of The Five-Year Engagement by Michael The Moviegoer.

THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT = ***

“I Do, But Not Yet”

Let’s be blunt. With “The Five-Year Engagement” Emily Blunt is the new romantic-comedy queen. She quite comfortably fills the shoes formerly belonging to Julia Roberts. If you’re wondering where you’ve seen her before, she was Anne Hathaway’s bitch of a co-worker in “The Devil Wears Prada”, Amy Adams’ depressed sister in “Sunshine Cleaning” and Matt Damon’s romantic interest in “The Adjustment Bureau”.

And now Emily Blunt is the one reason to see “The Five-Year Engagement”. Directed by Nicholas Stoller who re-teams with his “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star Jason Segel, this is a very funny wedding comedy. But for every joke that works, there seem to be two that don’t. With a running time of just over two hours, unusual for a romantic comedy, it sometimes feels as though we’re watching the deleted scenes section of the DVD. For example, a scene with a carrot splashing ranch dressing gets no laughs and just feels awkwardly forced into the film.

The title itself is almost an entire outline of the plot. This adorable and engaging couple decide to marry, but the wedding must be delayed when Blunt gets accepted to the University of Michigan to study psychology. Her groom-to-be is a top chef in a fancy San Francisco restaurant. But he gives that up to move with his fiancée to snowy Michigan in a bold stand-by-your-woman statement.

Like a parade of rom-com clichés, every obstacle you can imagine is thrown at them to test their love. But we’re spared from too many potentially eye-rolling moments by some smart writing and winning performances.

With Rhys Ifans playing Blunt’s professor, suddenly there are characters in Michigan speaking in British and Welsh accents. It’s a testament to the intelligence of the screenplay that we don’t seem to care about this oddity.

“The Five-Year Engagement” is a wedding comedy with a mixed bag of gifts. You have to take the good moments with the not-so-good moments. But for a fluffy piece of entertainment, it serves its purpose.

DVD Double Feature:

My favorite, and still the all-time champ of wedding comedies, is 1997’s “My Best Friend’s Wedding”. Julia Roberts tries to break-up the wedding of her best friend Dermot Mulroney to Cameron Diaz once she realizes that she wants him for herself.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Summary of The Hunger Games by Michael The Moviegoer.

THE HUNGER GAMES = **1/2

“TV Dinner”

Teens hunt and kill each other in the violent futuristic thriller “The Hunger Games” which receives a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. The MPAA is saying it’s OK for teens to see 2 and half hours of violence against children as long as none of those children utter the ‘F’ word. This is the same MPAA that just gave an ‘R’ rating to a documentary about teen bullying due to the very real-world use of the ‘F’ word by its subjects. It’s a word that most teens hear and use on a daily basis outside of the cinemas. The MPAA has a lot to answer for this summer.

“The Hunger Games” is the much-anticipated screen adaptation of the popular novel by Suzanne Collins. In a future where North America is under the tyrannical rule of the Panem regime, the government provides food rations to poor people in exchange for their names being put into a lottery that selects participants for their annual Hunger Games. Two people are selected from each of 12 districts for a fight-to-the-death. The game is over when only one is left alive. The nation watches these games which are televised like a bizarre combination of “Survivor” and “American Idol”. As our society becomes more and more desensitized to violence, the bloodthirsty hunger of the spectator seems like a plausible reality.

The timing of this movie’s release coincides with the national news story about unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin who was stalked, pursued and gunned down while walking home in Florida. Due to a lenient self-defense law in Florida, police allowed the shooter to go free and no investigation or arrest was made. Are you paying attention MPAA?

In “The Hunger Games” Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss, one of the most coveted roles in Hollywood. Her Oscar-nominated performance in “Winter’s Bone” as a backwoods girl searching for her criminal father while trying to save her family’s home from the government probably sealed the deal. Katniss’ young sister is the name selected by the lottery, so to save her Katniss volunteers to go in her place.

Katniss is Lisbeth Salander without a tattoo. Her survival skills are obvious because she’s a hunter. But her character could have used some of the wit and intelligence that David Mamet gave to Anthony Hopkins’ character in the wilderness survival adventure “The Edge”.

Katniss’ mentor is previous winner Haymitch played by Woody Harrelson. The crew of the TV show are a cast of colorful characters themselves, most looking like they stepped out of a Terry Gilliam movie. Stanley Tucci with a tower of blue hair is a Ryan Seacrest-type host. Elizabeth Banks is unrecognizable as PR guru Effie, and rock star Lenny Kravitz, with gold-sparkle eyeliner, plays Cinna the stylist.

This is only director Gary Ross’ third feature following 2003’s “Seabiscuit” and 1998’s “Pleasantville”. Neither film would suggest that Ross is the go-to man for one of Hollywood’s hottest new properties. As expected, Ross plays it safe and avoids making any artistic gambles that might put “The Hunger Games” on the same level as earlier dystopian sci-fi masterpieces such as “Blade Runner”. Ross was a safe choice for a potentially dangerous movie. He’s the PG-13-friendly director the MPAA prefers.

One of Ross’ biggest technical flaws is enough to drive you batty! In a stadium that looks twice the size of Madison Square Garden, the characters sit on a large stage in front of hundreds of thousands of audience members and speak to each other in muted whispers, yet with audible audience reaction to their conversation. Probably in the future, our sense of hearing improves quite a bit.

But if you loved the book, you’ll probably like the film. My problem with “The Hunger Games” is more with the story than with the film of it. The fact that the rules can be arbitrarily changed at random via a voice on a loud speaker system in a forest to allow for a romance to develop just seems horribly manipulative. If I were living in this time, I don’t think I’d be watching this on TV. I would change channels and watch “The Truman Show”.

Finally, the big climax calls for the introduction of CGI monsters which just completely killed my appetite for “The Hunger Games”.

DVD Double Feature:

The 1976 dystopian sci-fi classic “Logan’s Run” starring Michael York takes place in the year 2274. People are only allowed to live until their 30th birthday. Those who run are tracked and killed. York plays a tracker who becomes a runner.

A teen girl recently appeared before the MPAA appeals board to try and get the restrictive ‘R’ rating for the “Bully” documentary lowered to PG-13. She was told that the rating would not be lowered because the MPAA needed to keep their rating system “consistent”. Yet consistency has never been evident in the MPAA ratings of movies. In 1976 the MPAA rated “Logan’s Run” PG (even lower than PG-13). The DVD released in 2000 also has a rating of PG. Yet Jenny Agutter is practically nude throughout the entire film. There are many scenes that contain generous eye-popping T-&-A moments, including an orgy scene strangely similar to the one in Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”.

If the MPAA wants to strive for consistency in their ratings, they would need to apply today’s ratings standards in re-rating all of the movies from the last 50 years.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Summary of Game Change by Michael The Moviegoer.

GAME CHANGE = ***1/2

“Sarah Playin’”

Although it was quite obviously a desperate and transparent move, John McCain’s selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election really was the very definition of a game change. Following up “Recount” (about the Bush-Gore contested election results in Florida), director Jay Roach’s “Game Change” energetically dramatizes the rollercoaster ride of hope and despair that followed the announcement of Palin as the vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket.

Palin’s celebrity status skyrocketed from obscurity to superstar in a virtual instant. Initially looking like a strong candidate who could help McCain defeat Barack Obama, Palin eventually unravels into a neurotic mess. The reality of a McCain win would put Sarah Palin one 72-year old man’s heartbeat away from the presidency. With that harsh reality on the minds of most Americans, the game changed once again.

Every organization that rewards great acting should be prepared to give their awards to this cast. Julianne Moore is more Sarah Palin-like than Palin herself, if that’s even possible! The scene of Moore as Palin watching SNL’s Tina Fey as Palin is priceless! Ed Harris is so much like McCain you sometimes forget who you’re watching. Woody Harrelson plays their campaign strategist Steve Schmidt and it’s one of the meatiest performances of his career. It’s riveting watching him handle backstage politics like a master chess player.

Four years ago we all lived through these now historic events. Finally, with Roach’s film, we are given a glimpse behind the scenes of this weird political campaign. When compared with George Clooney’s wonderful yet fictitious “The Ides Of March”, “Game Change” proves that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

DVD Double Feature:

Jay Roach, the director of the “Austin Powers” movies, is an unlikely choice to replace Oliver Stone as the filmmaker to dramatize our contemporary political history. But a perfect companion to “Game Change” is Roach’s “Recount”. Kevin Spacey stars in this dramatization of events following the Bush vs. Gore presidential election of 2000 when Florida’s election results were contested and, for 36 days, Americans did not know who was elected to be their next president. But let’s have some fun. With the monster Steve Schmidt created that was Sarah Palin, a much more appropriate double-feature with “Game Change” would be any version of “Frankenstein”.

Michael The Moviegoer

Movie Summary of Friends With Kids by Michael The Moviegoer.

FRIENDS WITH KIDS = ***

“Just Kidding”

Highly implausible. Probably improbable. Yet finally semi-enjoyable. That’s “Friends With Kids” directed by and starring Jennifer Westfeldt (“Kissing Jessica Stein”) as a woman whose friends all have babies so, feeling left out, she and her best-friend-forever (Adam Scott) decide to get pregnant and share custody of their child without the commitment of marriage, or even a romantic partnership. These are a pair of strictly platonic parents.

Their friends are played by half the cast of last year’s “Bridesmaids”, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jon Hamm and Chris O’Dowd. So if you’ve been having “Bridesmaids” withdrawal symptoms waiting for the sequel that will never come, consider “Friends With Kids” kind of like a “Bridesmaids” reunion.

The baby boy in this scenario is written like a prop to be used in moving the clichéd romantic comedy plot along. The plot exists only to support a screenplay full of witty rom-com dialogue that does generate more than a few genuine laughs here and there.

As a director, Westfeldt is capable of getting the best from her cast. But it’s clear that she watches way too much television as her film is totally devoid of any cinematic flair. It’s sloppily edited and photographed like a TV sitcom. But it still has enough laughs to earn a recommendation as not a total waste of 100 minutes.

Consider this. When you board a plane or a train you most likely have a pretty good idea of where you’re going. Your destination is printed on your ticket. You know where you’re going to end up. Anyone who doesn’t believe that this platonic couple will end up together is on the wrong train.

DVD Double Feature:

2011’s surprise comedy hit “Bridesmaids” earned a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Melissa McCarthy, and a screenplay nomination for SNL’s Kristen Wiig. It’s a laugh-a-minute, but also has a touching romantic element. The fun begins when two of the bridesmaids compete with each other over who is actually the bride-to-be’s best friend. This one’s a lot of fun.

Michael The Moviegoer