Dir: Justin Zackham
With: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton
Runtime: 89 minutes
EVERYONE knows the movie business can be hard on ageing stars, with not enough roles around and too few directors willing to alienate that all-important under-25 demographic by having lived-in faces on screen.
That is no excuse, however, for the likes of Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon to sink to the likes of this comedy clunker. De Niro and Keaton, who in other lives were once Travis Bickle and Annie Hall, play Don and Ellie, a divorced couple preparing for the wedding of their daughter (Amanda Seyfried).
What ought to be a straightforward affair is larded with complication as Don's new partner (Susan Sarandon) begins to feel left out and his other daughter (Katherine Heigl) brings her own marital problems to the party. There are a zillion other sub-plots besides, all of them played out at excruciating length, plus Robin Williams turning up as a comedy priest.
If as much time had been spent on crafting jokes as working on the preposterous plot lines, director Justin Zackham might have had a passable if dull comedy. As it is, the attempts at humour range from the childish and mildly crass to gob-smackingly crude, the pace makes the average snail look like Usain Bolt and each story is more predictable than the last. De Niro, Keaton et al should have filed for divorce from this one as soon as they read the script.
H
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