License to wed

Sniveling toady of a film

By CHRIS BRAIOTTA | July 3, 2007

0.5 Stars

LICENSE TO WED: Like Arrested Development remade by the people behind Full House.

From its anonymous title down to every last moment of its pleading humor and shoehorned uplift, License To Wed is soaked in sloth and cowardice. Ben (The Office’s John Krasinski, apparently trying to make Steve Carell feel better about Evan Almighty) is sentenced to a gulag of wackiness when he proposes to Sadie (Mandy Moore, who’s pleasant enough but might not pass a Turing test). See, Sadie’s determined to get married at her childhood parish — which means surviving the Stasi-worthy intrusions of Reverend Frank (Robin Williams, the only man in history to be more annoying when he’s not on coke). This sniveling toady of a film is desperate to appeal to both halves of the heterosexual couples it targets for an audience. So it muddies its syrupy distillate of every romantic comedy ever made with absurd gags poorly retrofitted from far funnier milieux. It’s as if Arrested Development had been remade by the people behind FullHouse.

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