What happens when two people take a grudge as far as it can go? That´s the premise of "The Wedding Party," a 2005 German pseudo-comedy. We´re introduced to Mark and Sophia, the bride and groom, and their new family. Mark´s father, Hermann, is a boisterous Tony Soprano of sorts: he carries shotguns and rifles in the trunk of his car and is "accustomed" to getting his way, according to his wife. He has a "crew," consisting of at least one son and a couple strongmen. While Mark´s family is of a different variety, Sophia´s parents are more conservative (and in this story, bland).
So when the wedding dinner is cancelled due to rotten shrimp, the entire situation spirals out of control. Sophia and Hannelore (Hermann´s wife) are left behind in a bathroom at the hotel, prompting Hermann and hotel owner Franz to engage in a war. The initial displeasure is over Hermann´s insistence Franz sell the property to him (remember, he always gets his way). It gets worse as the bill is not paid, a grenade blows up a Mercedes and everyone starts brandishing weapons.
I´ll be honest: as part of the Danger After Dark line, I didn´t know what to expect when I put "The Wedding Party" into my DVD player. Would it be wildly offbeat like "Strange Circus" or bloodily fascinating like "Evil"? Based on the trailers, I was hopeful for a mild comedy with an explosion or two thrown in for good measure. What I got was 92 of the funniest minutes, in a dark way, I´d seen this year. This isn´t Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell funny; this is, in a lot of ways, more sophisticated, more adult humor without the curse words.
The beauty of this film, based on a comic strip, is every event is grounded in reality. These aren´t necessarily bad people; they just refuse to be shown up by anybody. Franz has his pride to maintain, not only in front of the other hotel patrons who witness Hermann´s outburst, but also to his staff. Despite efforts of giving all of the supporting players enough to do (the married man and the hooker, a seemingly gay cook who is scared of the dark, a bickering couple who gets locked in a basement), they are really only present to flesh out the proceedings with bodies.
And that´s okay because the focus is on Franz and Hermann as it should be. This is their story, so much so even Mark and Sophia get relegated to the background most of the time. Hermann pulls out a gun and destroys the telephone poles after Franz locks the gate behind the group. Franz implores two bikers to ride for help; Hermann catches them and shoves them in the basement, too. At each turn, the two men up the ante. At first, it´s all relatively simple acts, but it gets deadly serious when Granddad finds a supposedly dead grenade and blows up the aforementioned Mercedes.
It´s a moment of pure hilarity, this old man walking down the country road wearing a World War II style helmet and flack jacket. When he pulls out the explosive and the son on guard duty recoils, we do the same, smirking at the same time. In films like this, people may get hurt or bleed, but they don´t die. We know the grenade will be used to some comedic effect and, true to form, the pin is pulled and there is a mad dash to get rid of it. Later, this entire episode comes back in a near repeat.
Early on, there is a short sequence following the wedding ceremony which tells us everything we need to know about Hermann and the rest of the film. While setting up the family wedding photo, Hermann is directing everyone to their place while also preparing the camera. In normal families, it would be standard practice for the bride and groom to take center stage; in this family, the father is the last into the picture…and he interjects himself front and center. This one shot, of this wide gentleman effectively blocking out other people, is Hermann´s personality in a nutshell: he has to be the center of attention, be right and everyone had better love him for it.
Concurrent with this, a driver sleeps…with a fly darting in and out of his mouth. After a short struggle, the driver closes his mouth and promptly swallows the insect. Only to jump out of the car, making a scene that upstages Hermann. As with the grenade, we know what is coming, but our fore knowledge doesn´t hinder the joke, it helps it.
Lest I paint a flawless picture of this film, there are a couple areas for improvement. I already mentioned one of the major ones, the supporting characters. Simple, they don´t really have any personalities expect broad characterizations. There are stories and subplots to be mined for them. At one point, while in a hotel bedroom, Hannelore tells Sophia she can´t take Hermann anymore. We assume she can´t take the type of behavior on display. When the incident is over, does she stay with Hermann or does she leave? The hooker and the married man, who have their own subplot, disappear off the screen far too quickly. What happens with his Mercedes? Does his wife ever find out about the hooker or his "I´m at a conference" lie? How about the doctor and her husband who are "captured" by Hermann? I think we´re supposed to imply everyone ends the standoff no worse for the wear, but it´s a cop out. If the audience is supposed to invest 90 minutes in characters and plot, the least the script can do is pay off the storylines. To do anything else is a violation of the filmmaker-viewer contract.
The minute Franz closes the gate behind the wedding party and who was left behind dawns on Hermann and Mark, why do they stop short at the gate? Back up, get a full head of steam and ram it down. This is before any weapons are fired; Hermann couldn´t have known with any certainty Franz kept a shotgun under his bed. It´s the one plot gaffe that stuck out more than any other. As with most leaps in logic, had Hermann knocked down the gate, the film would have been over rather quickly.
All that being said, "The Wedding Party" is a very nice surprise, not to mention change of pace. This never could have been an American comedy because of our definition of the genre. Any comedy not played broadly or with enough sex jokes and crude humor to appease the teenagers doesn´t have a shot in hell of succeeding. This adaptation has its share of curses, but the dialogue never dovetails into the embarrassing. True to life and chuckle worthy, even if some of the laughs are telegraphed.
VIDEO:
The 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced) picture is a wonder to behold. For a foreign film unlikely to gain many fans stateside, what TLA has done is impressive. There are no problems of note with the transfer; for whatever reason, though, it has a "foreign" look to it. The "foreign" look is evident in nearly every non-American film. It is the film appearing just slightly over-exposed which shouts its origin to the audience. Some slight grain is on the screen, but it never detracts from the action. One thing I wanted to mention are the night scenes at the end of the film. Nothing wrong with them from a technical sense, but the sequence just looks too dark for the audience (or the characters) to clearly see what is happening.
AUDIO:
On the audio side, two German language tracks are available: both 5.1 and 2.0. Because the audio is spread across five speakers, the soundtrack comes across as being less dynamic than anything from the 2.0 side. That being said, they both sound really good, allowing the sound effects (like the exploding car) to come through unhampered. Even without the benefit of not understanding the German language, the dialogue is never drowned out or hard to hear. All things considered, choose the 2.0 track.
EXTRAS:
Extras wise, there isn´t much here. A collection of trailers for other TLA titles in the Danger After Dark series range from this movie´s theatrical trailer (1:56) to the already release "Evil" (1:04) and "Strange Circus" (2:04) and the upcoming "Next Door" (1:54). There´s also a promo for the Danger After Dark box set (1:20).
PARTING THOUGHTS:
With solid performances from the entire cast, and two standouts in Rohde and Uwe Ochsenknecht as Franz, as well as well-timed spurts of comedy, "The Wedding Party" gets an unequivocal recommendation. Some leaps in the story structure might leave fans upset but in the end the side characters don´t matter to the main plot. This is Hermann and Franz´s story, a portrait of two men butting heads, a story of hubris and pride and, ultimately, of giving just enough to get what they want.