Very well executed

Such a frustrating disappointment

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

We found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. We like Mandy Moore, she stars here as a psychotherapist who has to try to fix up the torn relationship of her parents, seeming to want a divorce after 30 years of marriage. Overall it comes across as a bit disjointed, especially with some of the real goofy scenes, but overall is worth a watch for light entertainment.I also want to mention how disjointed the story's location seems. We learn early that the newlyweds met when she was getting her PhD at Berkeley and he was working in wine-making in the Napa Valley. But the whole movie is set and filmed in the New Orleans area and a plantation home on the Mississippi River, with no hint of how they ended up there. It had me puzzled.Mandy Moore is Ava, the optimistic therapist, her young husband is Kellan Lutz as Charlie. Ava's dad is James Brolin as Bradley, who suddenly decides he will begin to show his "Jewness", and Jane Seymour as Betty is her mother. Her sister in Jessica Szohr as Shelby, my favorite character in this movie. So mom finds out about a very brief affair Charlie had in London some 25 years earlier when they were briefly separated and now she wants a divorce. Ava has to figure out how to make them realize that they really do love each other and want to stay together.A story with many good possibilities but most of them were wasted.

I like light romance comedies, but what I found most unlikable about this particular movie was Mandy Moore's character's very one-sided personality. She's been in too many movies where her characters have been irritating, one-sided, primadonna types. It's unfortunate given that she is so attractive. It's incredibly irritating to see a protagonist force her vision of what her parent's marriage should be. It was pounded again and again, just irritating, and there was no depth to it such as her showing a painful side as to why she needs to 'fix' things (ie some sense of childhood neglect), nor did it show her maturing into someone who wants their parents to be happy in their own way, without somebody, society, etc telling them what they 'should' be happy with. Who's to say anybody can tell another what makes them happy? Can't a couple go their separate ways for a few days or months, to discover their individual selves? I was more pleased with Jane Seymour's character to experience a life, grow, do new things, travel, etc apart from being some wife-servant. At least with Mandy Moore's character, she could have had some evolution in her efforts (not just that last second fake pill overdose shenanigan to manipulate her parents), to be more altruistic instead of dominating/manipulating.The conflict with the husband regarding the manipulation was well played. Mandy's character manipulates a fake life-and-death situation to deceive his mother into not wanting to be on her own for 6 months out of her life for once. Mandy's husband called her out on this blatant manipulation and I felt that was the most honest part of the movie, how shallow, selfish the manipulation was, to judge for other people what 'should' make them happy, that it involves some stereotype instead of personal discovery/independence. The resolution of the conflict came out of nowhere. The dialogue started with Mandy's character trying to apologize, but was interrupted, as if an apology or personal change/growth was completely unnecessary. The things the husband wanted from the wife (to accept, in him) was actually nothing to do with why he was angry in the first place. She gets interrupted from her apology, he asks to be accepted, they kiss, end credits. She never got the chance to apologize and so that almost says that it was unnecessary, superficial. Messages like that are dangerous. Even with the movie being a comedy.I found Mandy's character overall annoying/irritating and given that she felt no remorse for manipulating her parents, that she had no soul. I don't think it was Ms. Moore's fault, as that has more to do with the script and directing, hinting at emotion, providing pause, reflection, etc that the director simply did not provide. These romantic comedies that have such absurd conflict only to end in even more absurd resolution are ultimately dangerous stories of fantasy that even a lighthearted audience should not see. It only can give terrible impressions in a relationship, bad example, and make relationships more painful and illusive. At least a comedy could teach the viewers something. There was no lesson of compromise, of heart-felt communication, of acceptance, of change, of growth, etc - the conflict was sudden and the resolution was even more sudden.Normally I don't mind watching rom-coms multiple times, but i don't think this is enjoyable to watch again. The characters were too irritating to enjoy. It reminds me of the irritation I felt with another Mandy Moore movie, License to Wed, where the conflict felt so incredibly contrived/out-of-nowhere and the helplessness of the characters (to augment the ridiculous conflict) just made it really annoying. I actually liked her better in Swinging With The Finkels, even though in that movie I found the shallow, apathetic and loyalty-less husband quite irritating.

Love Wedding Marriage. The title of the movie had me thinking some girl would find love, then get married. In the first 2 minutes she was that. As soon as she started speaking, I could tell I wasn't going to like it. Ava (Mandy Moore) is a control freak, who went to extremes and basically wrecked her marriage to try and save someone else's. Ava of course is a marriage counselor, which when displayed didn't seem like her practice was great. The story line sort of sucked as with some of the acting mostly on Mandy Moore's side of things. Kellan Lutz looks amazing and I thought his acting was much better than I'd seen. The whole time I yawned through this = Boring.

Being a hopeless romantic and having a huge crush on Ms. Moore, I loved this movie as I do everything she's in. To see Mandy's career arc placing her in the ranks of the top actors is a tribute to her talent. Her sweetness, femininity, vulnerability, goodness--even bawdiness at times--assures her longevity as an actor. The wide spectrum of roles she's had--from A Walk to Remember, to Southland, to Dedication, to Tanlged shows the depth of her natural acting skills. May we enjoy Mandy for a long time to come and may she put out another album soon!Love Wedding Marriage leaves its mark as a a creative way to show the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back formula, and it succeeds because of all the assembled talent and because of Mr. Mulroney's fine direction.Oh--the movie? It was fun, fun, fun through the romance, conflict and romance. Loved it, loved it.