An ensemble comedy based around a society wedding where everything goes wrong. Directed by Robert Altman and featuring Mia Farrow.

When it was first released A Wedding received a cooler reception than director Robert Altman was used to with previous films Nashville and 3 Women. It is frenetic and confusing with Altman himself confessing, "It probably had too many characters and it gets a little unwieldy." With no fewer than 48 significant speaking parts, that was something of an understatement. However, even with its flaws, this is one of Altman's funniest and most ebullient films.

The ceremony that unites the Corelli and Brenner family gets off to a terrible start when "fuddy-duddy" Bishop Martin (an amusingly vacant Cromwell) fluffs his lines. The presiding matriarch of the Corelli household, Nettie Sloan (a suitably waspish Gish), then proceeds to drop dead. However this doesn't stop guests from attempting to converse with her and they're encouraged to do so by Dr Meecham (Duff). He's determined to conceal her lack of life signs so as not to spoil the party.

It helps that the guests are necking drink and drugs like there's no tomorrow. Fraught wedding planner Rita (Chaplin) looks set to crack as secrets and infidelities are revealed, feuds break out and a drunken aunty insists on singing. On top of that, the overzealous security staff begin to turn on the guests; "Sir, I don't want to have to neutralise you," says one the less confrontational bouncers.

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

 

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Theatrical Release: 29 August 1978

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