Jenny's Wedding

source: Jenny's Wedding

The movie is good, well written and really accurate compared to what happen in real life from my experience of parents finding out one of their kids is gay (the "please keep lying", the "what did we do wrong??", ...). So for me the movie has a huge potential and all of it is erased by the choice of actresses to be the gay couple : Heigl and Bledel. These two actresses are good but I didn't believe for once second in their couple. Heigl is a mature looking woman and Bledel looks...way younger! Both are beautiful and talented but as the couple....I didn't buy it and it bothered me during all the movie so at the end I'm disappointed and sad to feel that way.

This film belongs in 2005, this is not how gay films/ people are written anymore. I believe this movie was made by a bunch of straight people who think they know how LGBTQIA+ people work but really don't and the people who will really enjoy this movie are just people who want to feel good about themselves because they posted a rainbow on facebook when gay marriage was legalized because "I support gay people". Now that's not a bad thing to feel good about there is still a lot of people who think gay people should be stoned to death but this movie is only enjoyable to a small audience when it doesn't need to be. I'm going to compare it to another movie at this point, Imagine Me & You (2005), I LOVE this film it is very satisfying to see those 2 get together at the end and the build up that leads up. That is from the lesbian perspective, but the movie is also very enjoyable for most of the people around in 2005, accepting but still a little uncomfortable because it wasn't too much. It is a movie gay people and straight people can enjoy alike. Jenny's Wedding seems to have no idea what gay people would like to see in their movies using songs like She Keeps Me Warm, like yeah that song is about lesbians put that in. It really seems to distant itself from what it should be. Another movie I will quickly compare it too is Carol. That was an AMAZING movie and what the top of gay movies is for this time in my opinion, I don't expect Jenny's Wedding to be the same as this movie which is getting noms from many different awards but I expect it to be modern. If you had shown me Jenny's Wedding and asked me what year it came out I would say 2004. But it didn't it came out 2015. There's a gap, there's a learning curve that hasn't gotten to Jenny's Wedding yet. Jenny's Wedding is how not to write a gay film. That is my main problem with this movie.

I suppose this really was about a woman called Jenny being wedded, even so, it lacked so much drama, it was a boring exercise. The lack of an angle on her wife to be feels totally unbalanced. The only thing we know about her is that her mother lives in Portland. We don't know about her job, her father, her background ... NOTHING! After all, it's about JENNY'S wedding, not about ... I forgot her name already, and I think it's the filmmakers intention that I don't look that up. The only tension in this movie comes from waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever does. I guess it was the filmmakers intention to show lesbians as normal as possible, but does that HAVE TO mean as boring as hell? On a side note: Why are all lesbian roles played by heteronormative actresses, often married with chilluns??? And if it HAS to be those, how about a little skin? After all, we lesbians like to dream about unattainable stars as much as anyone. It was all too movie-of-the-week, Lifetime crappy for my taste. Oh well. On hindsight, this isn't about lesbians at all. It's about conservatives coming to the shocking discovery that .....drumroll .... their own kids are MORE important than what the neighbors think, or their own nauseating prejudices. I mean, half or more of conservatives actually abandon their utterly vulnerable kids when they come out, and that is so un-Christian, it is Satanic. The Melancholic Alcoholic.

the only reason i gave this movie a 2 is because Katherine hiegel looks good in her dress.. this movie is crap. its so bad.. one of the worst things about this movie is that is the music that is pretty meaningless yet whole scenes seem to be dedicated to just a stupid song. why? this movie seems like it was written after two film executives had coffee one morning and said to each other is there any movies about gay marriage lets make one.. and that was it.. they paid some intern to write it and there's your movie.. this movie is so bad I'm sure there hasn't been one lesbian that has even connected to it so the question is who were they making this for?

None of the usual reasons to watch a movie exist in this movie. It is not funny, the plot is so bad I stopped watching at 10-15 minutes (I hovered next a minute per minute to see what happens), I found out that I hate Katherine Heigl, so a very bad casting. About the story, I don't really like gay people, but I think they can do what ever they want, I don't care. What does the society do to them, deal with them, it is totally normal and less important than what the society do to other the "different" people (physically/mentally disabled people, minorities, different looking people in general as an example). I don't want to talk about the "grass" discussion. Last point, accepting what you are doesn't mean I need to approve or be happy about it and therefore be at your wedding or else I will be a very bad person (that what the movie implies).

Even telling what this movie is all about is a spoiler. Jenny is our girl next door belonging to an "ordinary" family who grew up in a closely knit neighborhood. Jenny does get married but not as per her parents expectations. She is gay, a fact that she kept away from her family all along until her as well as her family's attempts at getting her set up on dates with random guys pushes all of them to frustration. So at her father's behest she finally decides to tell her family who she was dating. This is a coming out story of a woman who was openly lesbian in the city but all sly when it came to her family and locality. It's about how the parents reacted when their favourite child threw something at them that they just didn't understand. When Jenny tells her to her mom who she was particularly close to she wasn't so much afraid of her being gay as she was of what "people will think". Its clear from the fact that she asks Jenny not to tell this to anyone except her father right now. She is worried of her life in that community where she has lived all along.Jenny's father's reaction is equally baffled although he rests his gun on the mother's shoulders and would rather talk about how her mother was getting hurt rather than his own confusion and resentment. They are baffled that they never understood this about their child. This is a textbook reaction of parents that they are "ordinary" people and they don't get it. The movie was very down to earth about handling this subject from the POV of a regular family. Tom wilkinson and Lind Emond as the parents were extremely believable. It was amusing to see how the father couldn't look on as the brides kissed after cutting the wedding cake although he had come around to accept his daughter's sexuality. Katherine Heigl's performance as Jenny was good. Her partner performed by Alexis Bledel didn't have much to do except look on supportingly. It was taken for granted that her parents had no objection and all was well at that front. This movie is not an out and out war cry for the LGBT community. It is not corny Or prudish nor is it overtly sexual. It is targeted at those people who dealing with the uncommon sexual inclination that they do not understand. They they never have come across in their known circles.These are regular people who do not deal with the ultra liberal ideas that come with cosmopolitan life. I see a lot of critics panning this movie. Someone blamed it of dealing with "too much sheltered people". But that is the fact. Not everybody lives sex and the city kind of life. Majority of people live an ordinary low key life and yes a "sheltered existence". Someone has to make a movie about that kind of people too. A movie's degree of impact varies based on the context and complexity of the situation addressed in it and not every movie will address the most complex even though talking about the same issue. Not every gay person evolves to be a LGBT revolutionary and not all families are utterly rejecting although they have their sets of challenges. This movie is a low key drama which is very identifiable and extremely approachable.

I couldn't believe the bad reviews. 20 years too late. This is my life. We only got the right to marry in NC in the past year. I had to give the same talk to my mom that Jenny (Hegel) gave to her mom. We are not as far along as some thing. This is an excellent movie talking about the disparity in how people deal with their GLBT children (or not). The movie is a good movie about normal people. If Hallmark can have sappy movies where all the straight people have to get married, why can't we have easy movies. The acting is much better than any Hallmark Movie I've ever watched. The movie isn't light-hearted, nor comedic. Some of us lose our parents and lose our families, friends, jobs. Some don't. This can at least be a way to start a conversation and show that MOST of us live normal boring lives. Oh, and that we are good people!

Jenny's Wedding is an under-appreciated film that I think will surprise many of you. It is one of many fine quality films that I find myself asking: Why didn't this get more than just an extremely shallow limited release? It certainly deserved better than only grossing a paltry $6244 worldwide, especially considering the end product. Piloted by veteran screenwriter-director Mary Agnes Donaghue (Beaches, White Oleander), the movie starts with a well written script. It is bolstered by fine performances across the board from a talented cast that includes Katherine Heigl, Tom Wilkinson, Linda Edmund, Grace Gummer and Alexis Beidel. It's crew achieved high production values that would compare favorably with films 5 times their budget. It has all the ingredients to be a fine film and delivers on that promise. Jenny's Wedding problem lies in Hollywood's inability to label it and know how to sell it rather than the film itself. It never meets the expectations unfairly placed on it by others to be a film it never pretended to be. It never was intended to be a laugh a minute comedy or a sappy love story or even a bold message film. It is an honest portrayal of how family members when placed in unfamiliar waters, may surprise or disappoint, themselves and others in how they act. I think this film benefits greatly from being seen with out any expectations. I had the benefit of watching this film without seeing the trailer or reading the blurb, both which reveal too much about the story. I enjoyed how the story unfolded, the slightly surprising but not shocking plot twist, and the unpredictability of how family members act and react when conflict arises. It had a credible balance of painful and feel good moments that any normal family goes through. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jenny's Wedding and hope you will too.

If you read the reviews or the trash from haters on these boards, you'd think this was a major stinker. it's actually a decent movie. It is not a romcom and if you watch the trailer, it shows clearly the focus is not on the lesbian couple. this movie is about parents experience after their daughter comes out to them. This isn't something you typically see from Hollywood. one thing i see is critics bashing the movie because it doesn't seem current with today's modern times of lgbt acceptance. sorry, i think these critics are out-of-touch and don't realize that yes, many still live in very conservative communities where being gay is not accepted, even in the states believe it or not. Even if parents are OK, it is difficult to instantly let go of your dreams for your kids having a *normal* life and worry about social scrutiny your kids and family will now face. this is well acted, particularly by Heigl, Emond, Wilkinson, and Gummer as they have the biggest roles here. Too bad Bledel's character didn't have much to do. The music could have been bit more subtle and the ending seemed lacking a bit. Transitions at times aren't very smooth, but expected due to the low-budget. if this movie actually got a change to be shown in theaters and marketed to general audiences (not just big cities), I could see this being a sleeper hit. But nowadays, only small movies that are considered Oscar contenders will get playtime in theaters. too bad. this is worth a look.