Movies: License to Wed

As you might expect, in Spain, most of the movies are Spanish, so I did end up seeing a few movies we brought over on DVD when we were taking breaks from combing through the city. Having never seen any of these DVDs, I picked out "License to Wed," since it featured Robin Williams. That turned out to be a mistake.

Robin Williams is one of the world's most famous comedians, but his recent work has been...well...disappointing, to say the least. The same guy who gave us "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Good Morning, Vietnam" churned out stuff like "RV" and "Man of the Year" in 2006. Sadly, "License to Wed" doesn't reverse this trend.

The movie starts out promisingly enough. Mandy Moore and John Krasinski are a dewey-eyed couple who are going to take the plunge into marriage, and Robin Williams is an eccentric pastor who's about to test their relationship to the limit. While the first third of the movie is lively enough, with some small laughs, the whole affair runs out of gas right about the time Robin Williams gives them mechanical babies (I am not making this up).

The big problem here is that by focusing on Moore and Krasinski, Williams is off screen most of the time for the last third of the movie. The final resolution, which is maudlin and predictable, also feels pretty forced.

Rating: 5/10