‘Reverend Frank is everywhere,” people repeatedly say in “License to Wed.” On the contrary: Even though the annoying Rev. Frank is a notorious meddler, there’s not enough of him to make this movie worth watching.
The Rev. Frank is played by Robin Williams, and he’s the supposedly lovable minister at St. Augustine’s. A newly engaged couple, Ben (John Krasinski) and Sadie (Mandy Moore), want him for their marriage – he’s been her family’s minister for years.
In a highly unbelievable contrivance, the only opening in the reverend’s schedule comes in a mere three weeks. So the wedding preparations – and, more importantly, the minister’s mandatory marriage seminar – must take place in less than a month.
The joke of the film is that the unorthodox seminar is closer to a “hell week” initiation than a school course. Embarrassing role-playing games, inappropriate sexual advice and a parenting test (with two freakishly ugly mechanical infants) are part of Frank’s bizarre program.
The movie could have gone two ways. One is to play this as an out-and-out black comedy, with Robin Williams in nasty mode and the Rev. Frank a true weirdo. The other way is to soften up the edges and make sure Frank becomes a good guy by the end.
Well, guess which way they went. (Hint: It’s not a black comedy.) The odd thing is, some of the creepiest touches from Possible Version One are still in the movie – like the fact that Frank puts a surveillance bug in Ben and Sadie’s apartment, and sits outside in a van eavesdropping while accompanied by his devoted adolescent boy assistant (Jose Flitter, from “Nancy Drew”).
The movie is lazy even in the way it presents its main assets, the actors. Mandy Moore is a likable sort who becomes duller with each movie, and she looks too glamorous for her role here. Robin Williams has moments where he gets to cut loose with trademark stuff, but his eventual rehabilitation hems in the performance. If you’re going to cast Robin Williams, why not let him go?
The bright spot is John Krasinski, who’s gotten a lot of deadpan mileage out of his role on “The Office.” This is his first leading-man movie part, and he’s quick and engaging.
By the time the action shifts to Jamaica, you won’t care how engaging an actor is. You’ll just want to hang the screenwriters from their thumbs for thinking there was something credible – even in the kooky world of screwball comedy – about the final act, in which people do things no human being would conceivably do.
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