Jenny’s Wedding (2015)

Directed by Mary Agnes Donoghue. Starring Katherine Heigl, Linda Emond, Tom Wilkinson, Grace Gummer, Alexis Bledel, Matthew Metzger, Diana Hardcastle, Sam McMurray, Houston Rhimes, Cathleen O’Malley. [PG-13]

Jenny’s (Heigl) family is worried about why the thirty-something daughter is still unattached and disinterested in finding a special someone…except Jenny already found her special someone, her roommate/partner Bledel, and she wants to get married and start a family but is anxious about how her “traditional” conservative family will react. Well-meaning tract, preachy at times, and the tone doesn’t work—the dialogue and character changes have the facile comfort of a comedy, but the material is firmly in the camp of heartfelt drama, which makes everything and everyone feel too artificial in acting out its morality play on tolerance. Frustratingly, the other bride-to-be isn’t developed at all, making their love/wedding story little more than a prop. Might improve if viewed on mute with the subtitles on, because Bryan Byrne’s sappy score and the ham-fisted pop song cues are even more insufferable than the bigots who’d judge Jenny’s pursuit of happiness (Hardcastle’s haircut telegraphs her righteousness in advance). Serving as writer, director and co-producer, this is Donoghue’s show, and it’s a shame she couldn’t have packaged its message in a craftier, more subtle way.

40/100