I’ll be honest. When I first heard about this film I cringed. A coming out story where one character hides their significant other from their loved ones? Yawn. How many times have we seen this plot line? Also this idea just seemed, I don’t know, outdated? So going into this my expectations were quite low. Although to my shock and surprise I actually didn’t find this film to be one big utter disappointment like I had anticipated. Here’s the synopsis for ya.
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| ew.com |
Jenny
(Katherine Heigl) is a thirty-something woman hailing from good ol’ Cleveland,
Ohio. Up until this point, Jenny has always had a great relationship with her
parents (Tom Wilkinson and Linda Emond), and according to her siblings, is the
favorite child. However, Jenny has hidden her five-year relationship with her
“roommate” Kitty (Alexis Bledel) from the entirety of her family. So much so
that she even goes along with an accusation from her sister that she’s fooling
around with a married man, just so they think she’s dating someone. The film
gets going when Jenny decides that she wants marry Kitty. The way it’s
presented to us is very spur of the moment with virtually no romance
whatsoever. No popping of the question, no romantic kiss, just a "Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say that!” reaction from Kitty. Sound appealing yet? Well here’s what
this movie did well and what the filmmakers could’ve improved on. *SPOILERS
AHEAD*
Strengths
Great
adaptation of a personal journey
I
thought the biggest strength of this film was how in depth the writer was with
Jenny’s personal struggle to tell her family. I found it to be quite engaging
watching her emotional journey leading up to coming out, telling her family,
and then the inevitable aftermath. I definitely felt that I was watching her
grow as a character by initially being sad and broken down, to getting angry
and standing up for herself and who she was. I wanted to cheer when Jenny met
her mom in the shopping plaza and told her how if she couldn’t handle it (Jenny
marrying a woman) then it was her problem and not Jenny’s. That specific scene
was so relatable for the audience because all of us at one time or another have
been in that same situation where we’ve had to defend ourselves and our
lifestyles.
Engaging
Even
though I think coming out stories are beyond overdone in the movie business, I
do think this film kept the audience engaged by the side-plot lines of the
film. One being the marital problems of Anne (Grace Gummer), Jenny’s sister,
and her husband. Through her personal story we were able to learn more about
Anne’s instability and where her beliefs stemmed from. Mainly when it came to
Jenny and her lifestyle. There were also many scenes with both of Jenny’s
parents and their friends which showed the audience how influential our friends
really are and the lengths we will go to not disappoint them. These so called “friends”
contributed to her parents distaste for the gay lifestyle. This film really was
more about Jenny and her relationship with her family then Jenny and her queer
lifestyle and that’s ok! That doesn’t make for a bad film just because it’s not
“queer cinema”, but I do think that’s why so many critics and lesbians alike
were disappointed with it.
Improvements
Less Predictability
Even
though the family storyline was engaging, the film was way too predictable. We
knew the string of events was going to go as follows: shocked reaction from the
family, partial acceptance/denial, then the family comes around and attends
the wedding. Ugh. Show us something to at least moderately surprise the
audience! No one was shocked when Anne left her husband, no one was astounded
when Jenny’s dad accepted her. We knew those stories were going to turn out
that way. This movie was just too safe in that regard. It would’ve been much
stronger if the audience couldn’t predict every scene. Spontaneity in a film
never hurt anyone kids.
Characters
with chemistry
I
might be eating my words a bit here. I just said how this movie doesn’t
constitute as a queer film which is true and completely fine if that’s what the
writers were going for. But from the perspective of someone who loves a film where
ladies are getting down and dirty, I definitely craved that. Hollywood doesn’t
understand that there is a total lack of great lesbian films out there so all
of us gay ladies are just aching for a good movie to be made. I can guarantee
that if the main female character in your film is gay, every lesbian in
existence is watching your film. The least you could do is give us characters
with good chemistry and show more than just a few tiny kisses! I found myself
completely bored at the lack of passion and desire between Jenny and Kitty.
Alexis Bledel was barely even in the film which I thought was a total waste of
her talents.
Jenny’s
Wedding is definitely a little outdated and “safe” per se, but overall isn’t a
bad watch. My best advice to you if you haven’t seen it already is to take it
for what it is and don’t get your hopes up. That’s the way to enjoy it. However
if you’re looking for lots of girl-on-girl action, don’t even bother watching.
