The Wedding Pact
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The Wedding Pact
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Wedding Pact contains excessive drinking, some sensuality, frequent sexualizing of women, and frequent use of profanity or crass language, including terms such as "kicked me in the nuts" and "bitch." Though the story aims to be a sweet romantic comedy about true love persevering, there's a harshness and immaturity to the tone that make this movie better for older teens and up, though not necessarily quality viewing for anyone.
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What's the Story?
Celebrating the end of college, best friends Mitch (Chris Soldevilla) and Elizabeth (Haylie Duff) make a joking pact that if neither is married in 10 years, they'll take each other up on the offer to get hitched. Ten years on, Mitch is still single and decides to track down his old pal to make good on the promise. But he discovers she's about to marry someone else, and things may be much more complicated than they seem.
Is It Any Good?
THE WEDDING PACT wants to be a Judd Apatow flick's blend of crassness, immaturity, and heart, but it only scores on the first two counts. Here, we have a series of unlikable male characters who seem barely interested in women as people, until Mitch decides he's totally alone and should have gone after the woman of his dreams 10 years ago. What follows feels like an imitation of better films with better actors with better chemistry, without the likability and energy. What's left is an empty, formulaic film that trades on excessive drinking, with most women as distractions and people making bad choices. Haylie Duff as Elizabeth has a genuine warmth and amiability, but it cannot save the tone-deafness of the rest of this film, which at best offers a good example of how not to be as a person. Parents, if teens think this might be a cute boy-girl film, direct elsewhere.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how women are portrayed in the film. Many of them are shown dancing around in lingerie, coming on to men, suggesting a fling, or engaging in other stereotypes of female behavior. How do these depictions harm women? How could these characters have been written differently?
Does the true love in the film seem believable? Why, or why not?
How does the film stereotype what men want from relationships? If the main character was a woman who showed up to marry her old friend from college, how would the film be different? Would it be as funny?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: February 25, 2014
- Cast: Haylie Duff, Chris Soldevilla
- Director: Matt Berman
- Studio: Phase 4 Films
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Friendship
- Run time: 92 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: June 2, 2022
Our Editors Recommend
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Knocked Up
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My Best Friend's Wedding
Sexist '90s screwball comedy has cursing, smoking, drinking.
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13 Going on 30
Touching, hilarious Jennifer Garner romcom.
For kids who love romance
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