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Review: License to Wed (DVD)

I was familiar with the movie License to Wed before it debuted on DVD; my wife and I saw it less than a year into our marriage and we were happy to get the chance to own the film on DVD. The set-up’s simple. John Krasinski of The Office and Mandy Moore play a couple who want to get married, but to do so, they have to take Rev. Frank’s marriage preparation course. The problem is, Rev. Frank is Robin Williams.

It’s as simple as that, really. While there were a couple moments that made my wife and I smile, having been through premarital counseling only a year before seeing this movie. But while amusing, the real disconnect set in when Robin Williams, as he always does, took the character way over the top and, rather than playing a somewhat boundary-pushing and eccentric pastor, he spends most of the film playing… Robin Williams.

Once a high-energy, zany comic, Williams has become increasingly politicized, opinionated and boorish in his comedy over the three decades or so since he first appeared as Mork from Ork on a Happy Days episode, launching his career to superstardom. When he left Mork and Mindy to do films, his first director on The World According to Garp had to put in a yeoman’s effort just to reign Williams in to get an accurate line delivery out of him instead of all the nonsensical ad-lib in which he specializes.

That was a long time ago, and Williams has only become harder to reign in over the years, especially when cast in a comedy rather than a dramatic role. While License to Wed has Williams delivering some laughs, it’s no Good Morning Vietnam, aside from the fact that Williams is again playing an antiestablishment type who bucks against expectations.

Of course, that kind of blunts the surprise factor of many of the films’ jokes. When Rev. Frank gets suddenly and surprisingly frank with Krasinski’s character about sex, it’s supposed to be a huge laugh as a line coming from a man of the cloth; yet given Williams’ reputation for blue comedy, the laugh was muted because such shocks are no surprise at all coming from Williams. It’s a lot like watching your local insurance agent in a play in which he plays a pastor who suddenly asks someone about their individual health insurance policy; it’s no surprise at all because of who is playing the role.

As for the DVD package, there’s not as much bonus material as one might wish; the audio commentary involves only the director, Ken Kwapis, which misses the boat; in a Robin Williams movie, you at least want to hear Robin Williams banter with the director. But no, it’s just Kwapis reminiscing, which just isn’t anywhere near enough. One minor “ask the choir boy” special feature is a novelty at best.

The selection of special features simply leaves a lot to be desired in this package. If you’ve seen it in theatres and loved the movie, grab this, unless you’re expecting more than is being offered here. The dedicated DVD-phile will find this package to be lacking in the bells and whistles department.

Review: Shattered (DVD)

When it comes to playing bad guys, Pierce Brosnan – my personal favorite 007 actor and shut up all you old-fogy Sean Connery fans – is not the first name that brings to mind. Yet he slips into the mold quite well in this R-rated thriller. The story focuses around a couple who are taken hostage in their own car by a fellow whose motives for wanting to control them – and destroy their lives – are initially murky.

The couple in question, played by Maria Bello and Gerard Butler, seem like the perfect upper-middle class, affluent Chicago couple, with a seemingly idyllic life that probably includes vacationing at a Hilton Head rental. As in any good Hitchcockian thriller, however, all is not as it seems. Their abductor seems to know both of them quite well and seems to have a personal vendetta he is pursuing, but even those preconceived notions will be challenged by the end of the twist-filled plot that offers plenty of entertaining, keep-em-guessing head-fakes before the big reveal.

One of the aspects of this thriller that pleased both my wife and me is that despite the R rating, there’s very little by way of course language and although there is plenty of implied and threatened violence, there’s not much in the way of actual violence. That makes for good suspense, since the threat of violence is always more tension-inducing than the actual act itself. As Hitchcock once said, you can show the audience a bomb ticking under a table that the hero is unaware of, and give them a thrill as the seconds tick down… but you can’t actually explode the bomb and kill the hero, or the audience will hate you.

Such thriller mathematics is understood and at play in Shattered, which turns out to be a surprisingly strong performance by Maria Bello. Bello, who probably will remind you of several sitcom actresses even though she’s never been in one, has been on a hot streak since appearing in A History of Violence back in 2005. Since then, she’s been toughening up her image in a real Diane Lane / Linda Fiorentino kind of way; not as young as she once was, Bello is staying relevant in a youth-obsessed Hollywood culture by taking rougher roles that highlight her pure acting ability rather than her feminine charms. She’s come a long way since her Coyote Ugly days.

Shattered is a movie that ought to cement Bello alongside Lane and Fiorentino in that regard, delivering impressive acting chops in this role that stands side-by-side with her work in A History of Violence. The film was quiet at the box office but is one of those that could flourish on DVD as word of mouth spreads about the quality of the film.

The special features are slim but substantive, providing only a couple featurettes and a slim selection of alternate and deleted scenes. There is a director and writer’s commentary track for the film, but it would have been far more intriguing if the main three actors, Brosnan, Bello and Butler, had also been involved. Still, not a bad package for a film that didn’t make a big splash on the big screen.