02/13/98
MOVIE REVIEW: The Wedding Singer
A surprisingly sweet Valentine from Adam Sandler

By MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal-Bulletin Arts Writer

**** (out of five)
Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Christine Taylor, Allen Covert, Matthew Glave, Ellen Albertini Dow, Angela Featherstone, Alexis Arquette. A New Line Cinema picture written by Tim Herlihy, directed by Frank Coraci. Rated PG-13, contains profanity, violence, adult themes. Running time: 97 minutes.

Adam Sandler gives up his whiny, annoying persona and creates a surprisingly sympathetic leading man in the bright romantic comedy The Wedding Singer, a movie about a jilted man who falls in love with a woman who is about to marry someone else.

He's the Heartbreak Kid.

She's his Juliet.

And The Wedding Singer is the perfect feel-good movie for Valentine's Day.

I wouldn't say that Leonardo DiCaprio has anything to worry about. Sandler, who looks like a baleful Bruce Springsteen, wears his heart on his sleeve as Robbie Hart (yes, Hart!). When Robbie gets jilted by his longtime girlfriend, he finds sympathy and compassion from a pretty waitress who wishes that Robbie could be as happy as she is as her wedding day approaches.

But is she really happy? Barrymore's Julia Sullivan -- pretty, perky, a little chunky (which makes her vulnerable) and very, very sweet -- wants everything about her wedding day to be beautiful and airy and romantic. And that's what Robbie, who has sung at so many weddings that he volunteers as her adviser, wants for her, too.

Unfortunately, her fiance has no sense of romance or humor. A junk-bond trader -- the film is set in the middle '80s, which gives us a wacky perspective as well as a raft of terrific, toe-tapping songs -- Glenn is a material boy who plans to continue his lustful ways after the "I do" routine.

The script by Tim Herlihy (head writer for Saturday Night Live, which probably accounts for the large number of SNL alumni who turn up in cameos) offers nothing new. The plot about boy-tries-to-save-girl from a misstep at the altar has been a popular movie story since at least It Happened One Night in 1934, and no doubt much earlier.

Still, it's breezy, and new director Frank Coraci has a sense of the offbeat and the romantic. Make 'em cry and they'll love you, which is what Robbie gets us to do when it looks as though Julia is determined to go to the altar.

But this is Adam Sandler, after all, which means that there's also plenty of no-holds-barred comedy. Fortunately, The Wedding Singer doesn't allow him to go overboard in a cheap imitation of Jerry Lewis, which has been Sandler's problem in too many films.

Not that he's completely normal, thankfully.

After chasing after love for years and singing for umpteen weddings where he is always popular, Robbie is looking forward to his own upcoming wedding. But longtime girlfriend Linda (Angela Featherstone) has other plans.

Soon the jilted Robbie is insulting wedding guests, singing mean-spirited songs that have lyrics such as "Oh, somebody kill me, please!" or the '80s hit Love Stinks and generally ruining his wedding-singer career. The only bright spot in his life is Julia, and when he begins to plan her wedding, things start to happen between them.

Sandler and Barrymore have a good, easygoing chemistry that drives the film. We want them to get together. They're nice people. In a lovely sequence, Robbie and Julia help a couple of wallflower children get over their feelings of inadequacy at a big party by inviting them to dance. Wonderful.

They're boosted by The Wedding Singer's merry sense of the '80s, from Don Johnson pastel clothes to Michael Jackson's silver glove to Robbie's band singer (Alexis Arquette), who is an imitation Boy George, a fact that startles wedding guests when they realize the long-haired person in lipstick and dresses is a man.

The supporting cast is strong, too, which makes for a well-rounded film. Especially good are Christine Taylor as Julia's been-around-the-block best friend, Allen Covert as Robbie's fad-conscious best friend, Ellen Albertini Dow as a kindly elderly woman who takes singing lessons from Robbie for her 50th wedding anniversary and Glave as the heartless fiance.

Add some surprise appearances by the likes of Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon and Billy Idol and you have a movie that's filled with cheer. It's the movie that My Best Friend's Wedding should have been.