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Charlie (Charles Pfluger) and Josephine (Jill Clayburgh) are getting
married - at her family, the Fishes' place on an island at the East Coast,
and as much as he might love Josephine, he soon finds out the same isn't
necessarily true for her family ... which he finds to be vast upon the
wedding preparations. Of special interest or concern are of course her
permanently stressed out mother (Valda Setterfield), her slightly odd
father (Raymong McNally), her cousins Cecil (Robert De Niro) and Alistair
(William Finley) - who at first insist on him being not good enough, then
on throwing him a bachelor party, then forgetting to bring him along to
then never get off his case again -, her cousin (Judy Thomas), who
eventually tries to seduce him, her nanny (Sue Ann Gilfillan), who always
pops up at the least convenient occasions, and of course the local
reverend (John Braswell), who hasn't got a clue but tries to hammer home
his point anyways. So it's no wonder that Charles eventually wants to take
flight, and on the day of the wedding, too - but how far can you get being
on an island with your wife's kin? ... Allegedly made in 1963,
this might have been Robert De Niro's very first movie - but due to
massive issue (including the production company's bankrupcy) it hadn't
been released until 1969. Be that as it may, it wouldn't be the last
collaboration between Robert De Niro and Brian De Palma. The
movie itself ... sure as heck is an interesting one, a slightly absurd
comedy that sits somewhere in between avant garde, nouvelle vague, and old
fashioned slapstick, which shows later master director Brian De Palma (the
only one of the trio that had a considerable career in that field) not yet
at the height of his game, but as someone who can easily soak up cinematic
styles and turn them into something fresh - and thus, the result is a
light-footed little film that can't deny it's from the 1960s with all the
cultural upheaval that happened then, but it has aged well, thanks not
only to slick direction and a fun script but also a great ensemble cast
(with a good but admittedly not at the height of his game De Niro in it)
and a general laissez faire attitude to everything that seems to have gone
from movies in general since ...
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