Main Cast: Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Mia Farrow, Lillian Gish, Amy Stryker, Howard Duff, Geraldine Chaplin, Dennis Christopher
Release Year: 1978
Country: US
Run Time: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Robert Altman's over-frenetic satire on American marriage rituals and hypocrisy concerns the upper-crust marriage between Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) and Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker). As the film begins, a senile bishop forgets the lines to the wedding ceremony and Nettie Sloan (the groom's grandmother) drops dead in an upstairs bedroom. Nettie's death is not disclosed to the two families who converge at the wedding reception. As the two sets of in-laws slam into each other, the bride and groom disappear in the ensuing whirlwind of chaos as both extended families vie for sexual favors and try to keep hidden never-discussed family secrets. Regina Corelli (Nina Van Pallandt) is revealed to be a drug addict, while Luigi, is endeavoring unsuccessfully to keep his Mafia connections under wraps. Meanwhile, the bride's family, although more down to earth, are revealed to be no better. Tulip Brenner (Carol Burnett) begins to flirt with one of the wedding guests, Mackenzie Goddard (Pat McCormick), while Snooks Brenner (Paul Dooley) acts like a lout and drinks heavily. And flying around the edges of the action like Tinkerbell is Buffy Brenner, the Brenners' youngest daughter, who is pregnant by the groom. As other characters bang into each other -- sexual degenerates, hard-nosed radicals, raw-boned emotional wrecks -- the wedding reception heads for its inevitable nuclear explosion. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Shot in sequence and in the director's typical improvisatory manner (and with a cast of characters that, in numbers, dwarfs even his own Nashville), Robert Altman's A Wedding is an uneven and ultimately unsatisfying satire by one of America's most idiosyncratic filmmakers. In the earlier Nashville, Altman was able to meld the many disparate story lines and characters into a film that was cohesive and delivered a devastating punch. He doesn't pull that off here, instead gathering together a bunch of people that certainly have a surface reason to be together but which don't really have a thematic connection -- other than the thin, unexplored idea of "exposing" the hypocrisy attendant in such social situations. Without any kind of real narrative glue, A Wedding comes across as merely a series of vignettes, although some of them are tremendously entertaining. There are enough of the visual and aural Altman signatures to keep film students on their toes; the writers and cast have certainly come up with a number of memorable lines and moments; and, as in most Altman group extravaganzas, the cast knows how to deliver the goods. As a result, there's enough to keep A Wedding chugging along nicely for the first hour or so, but it starts to run out of gas even before the disappointing climax. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Lauren Hutton - Florence Farmer; Gerald Busby - David Ruteledge; Peggy Ann Garner - Candice Ruteledge; Vittorio Gassman - Luigi Corelli; Desi Arnaz, Jr. - Dino Corelli; Dina Merrill - Antoinette Sloan Goddard; Pat McCormick - Mackenzie Goddard; John Cromwell - Bishop Martin; John Considine - Jeff Kuykendall; Viveca Lindfors - Ingrid Hellstrom; Robert Fortier - Jim Habor; Bert Remsen - William Williamson; Ellie Albers - Gypsy Violinist; Mona Abboud - Melba Lear; Margery Bond - Lombardo; Pam Dawber - Tracy Farrell; Mark R. Deming - Matthew Ruteledge; Dennis Franz - Koons; Marta Heflin - Shelby Munker; Jeffrey Jones - Ruteledge Child; Margaret Ladd - Ruby Spar; Tony Llorens - Piano Player; Belita Moreno - Daphne Corelli; Craig Richard Nelson - Capt. Reedley Roots; Ruth Nelson - Beatrice Sloan Cory; Susan Kendall Newman - Chris Clinton; Allan Nicholls - Jake Jacobs; Gavan O'Herlihy - Wilson Briggs; Jeff Perry - Bunky Lemay; Luigi Proietti - Dino Corelli I; Beverly Ross - Nurse Janet Schulman; Ann Ryerson - Victoria Cory; Cedric Scott - Randolph; Mary Seibel - Aunt Marge Spar; Maureen Steindler - Libby Clinton; Tim Thomerson - Russell Bean; Nina Van Pallandt - Regina Corelli; Virginia Vestoff - Clarice Sloan; Patricia Resnick - Redford; Maisie Hoy - Casey
Credit
Scott Bushnell - Associate Producer, Peter L. Bergquist - First Assistant Director, Bob Dahlin - First Assistant Director, Tommy Thompson - First Assistant Director, Robert Altman - Director, Tony Lombardo - Editor, Tommy Thompson - Executive Producer, Tom Waits - Composer (Music Score), John Hotchkis - Composer (Music Score), Charles Rosher Jr. - Cinematographer, Robert Altman - Producer, Tommy Thompson - Producer, Jim Webb - Sound/Sound Designer, Jim Stuebe - Sound/Sound Designer, Chris McLaughlin - Sound/Sound Designer, John Considine - Screenwriter, Allan Nicholls - Screenwriter, Robert Altman - Screenwriter, Patricia Resnick - Screenwriter
The stories unfold in a single day during a lavish wedding that merges a middle-class Southern family with a wealthy one that has connections to organized crime. Capped with a somewhat tragic ending, the film concludes with a cover version of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire." Cohen's music set the tone for Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller[citation needed]
It was adapted into an opera in 2004, also called A Wedding.
The house featured in the film is the current residence of singer Richard Marx, and his wife, actress Cynthia Rhodes.
This is the first time that actors Paul Dooley and Dennis Christopher played father and son in a film, as Liam and Hughie Brenner, respectively. They will appear together again in Breaking Away (1979), as Raymond and Dave Stoller, and in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent TV episode Cherry Red (2003), as Stan and Roger Coffman.
