The Wedding Singer (1998)

★★★
The Wedding Singer was the first sign that Adam Sandler had the talent to sustain interest and carry a movie confidently on his shoulders. I never watched Saturday Night Live and was unfamiliar with his work there. I am familiar with Billy Madison, which had its moments but was still a lame comedy about a temperamental man-child. Sandler had a pretty good idea of what people found funny, no matter the quality of the story or the execution, and he milked that desire shamelessly. Billy Madison came out in 1995, a year after Jim Carey’s obnoxious Ace Ventura: Pet Detective became a big hit. The blueprint was there for others to follow. For Sandler, it was just good business to ride that wave, even if the product was artistically lacking. That said, the previews for his 1998 film The Wedding Singer looked promising. Was Sandler using this vehicle to challenge himself? It’s worth considering.

Sandler plays Robbie Hart, a wedding singer who is getting ready for his own big day. Unfortunately, his fiancée Linda (Angela Featherstone) doesn’t show up, and he’s left stranded at the altar in front of his friends and family. Also present is Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore), a waitress whom Robbie met the previous week. She works for a catering company that serves wedding receptions, so they run in the same circles. Following a brief period of discontent, Robbie comes out of his shell and befriends Julia and her sister Holly (Christine Taylor). Julia is engaged to Glenn (Matthew Glave), a rich investor who has put off marriage for years but finally decides to marry her out of obligation rather than love.

The story unfolds as expected. Robbie falls for Julia, and Julia doubts her future with Glenn. Where this leads will be of no surprise. Intermixed with these plot threads are Robbie’s efforts to tutor neighbor Rosie (Ellen Albertini Dow) to sing at her 50th wedding anniversary, his desire to get a real job and move out of his sister’s basement, and the return of Linda, who complicates matters. Adam Sandler navigates these waters effortlessly. He brings with him a little of the familiar Sandler mannerisms, like his sudden outbursts, but for the most part he’s grounded. His scenes with Barrymore are charming and sweet. He tries to uplift everyone around him. When he spots a shy kid at a reception, he works with Julia to boost his standing with the other kids. This is far more effective than a similar scene in Billy Madison, in which he tries to convince kids that it’s cool to wet one’s pants in order to make a boy feel better.

Sandler is really good here, but as all this transpires, the person who really stands out is Drew Barrymore. She looks fabulous. Julia is a great character and by getting the opportunity to play her, Barrymore lets so many of her good qualities be seen. Her childhood was rough and some of her movie choices were questionable (Poison Ivy), so watching her here, smiling a lot and obviously happy to be part of this production, is refreshing. In the same year she starred in the fantastic Ever After, which continued her career resurgence. Another enjoyable aspect of The Wedding Singer is its 1985 setting. The year 1985 is not significant to the plot, but it allows for some funny gags, like a C.D. player that cost $700, as well as an excuse to play some classic ‘80s music.

Sandler followed up this effort by taking a step back with The Waterboy and Big Daddy. It was not until 2002 that Sandler’s gifts would be fully realized, in Punch-Drunk Love, and even then he felt compelled to fall back into bad habits (2011’s Jack and Jill). He has his shortcomings, but he’s also a smart guy. He knew his career would be short-lived if he kept doing these movies. His contemporaries Pauly Shore and Rob Schneider kept doing the same kind of movie, and audience interest eventually dried up. Sandler at least tries to do different things, while perhaps thinking that he needs to throw a bone to fans of his earlier work to remind them that he hasn’t forgotten them. It’s considerate, but also ill-advised. It would be like if Tom Hanks did something like Bachelor Party today. It would be overreaching to suggest that The Wedding Singer was a sign of things to come. It’s more like a sample of Sandler’s potential, one that he would fall short of reaching more often than surpassing later in his career, but a good sample nonetheless.

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