NO SPOILERS IN THIS POST.
This little movie must have taken a while to get to Australia since it was made in New Zealand in 2008. It is showing at my local theatre where quirky films sometimes find a home and often play for weeks to small but full houses.
This is the story of Cheryl and her fiance Stew, and her attempt to have the wedding of her dreams without the intervention of her mother's penchant for everything second hand. I loved the footage of Cheryl's mother Jill, racing between garage sales in her yellow Mini van with her dippy friend Muffy reading the street directory to find the most direct route and beat the dealers to every sale. Where did Muffy get those coats? Silly question, a garage sale of course.... where else to find great fluffy fake furs and black and white spotted creations that make her look like a demented sheep. Her character owes much to the urban myths about scatterbrained blondes, but of course she has secrets and one of the best is revealed at the wedding in the final scenes of the film.
The predictable storyline is not the feature of this film, it is the vehicle to show how characters interact and weave the fabric of life. There are lots of good deeds, a few bad ones, and many well-intentioned ones. There is work-place tension and jealousy, a nightmarish vision of the possible wedding from hell, the bridesmaid who wants to look sexy; the family home has plastic fruit in the kitchen, a satisfyingly familiar pile of ladders and tyres beside the garage, and mis-matched mugs for serving tea. The ending is funny and touching. Watch out for the extra piece during the credits which explains the random appearances of the sign thief.
When Marian and I choose a movie it wont be a thrilling action movie with spies and gadgetry, and it probably wont be animated. It might have subtitles (I loved The Hedgehog last week), it might be romantic and it will definitely make us laugh. Despite a couple of sequences that were a bit close to home and made me shudder just a little, this was a good movie that I'm glad we saw.
I like my books challenging and my movies like hot frothy chocolate.
