This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Aloha
Plot Overview
The Buddy Scott Trio
is playing their
original jazz number, Brand New Car in Seattle's Hula
Lounge when partier Pete Coleman (Thomas Lennon) tells younger
brother Paul (Jason Lee) to “loosen up a little.” Paul
doffs his groom hat
and gives it to (“You be the groom”) his buddy Jim (Shawn
Hatosy) making him the designated groom at Paul's bachelor party …
much in the vein of a jazz group passing off the lead. Jim scores
with the head Tiki dancer Tonya (Lisa Calder) while sidelined
Paul is thrown together with (“You sure suck”) new hire
Becky Jackson (Julia Stiles.)
In the aftermath of the party, Paul
is seen breaking in a new pair of dress shoes. Paul's father-in-law-to-be
Ken (James Brolin) is driving a “New Benz” with a problematic
alarm. They hire a first-time chef who spikes the gravy. Paul's
fiancée Karen Cooper (Selma Blair) gives him a new sweater
to wear at the rehearsal dinner. And they tap a new minister Ferris
to fill in for the one who was indisposed after the meal. Becky having
been fired from her dancing gig Sunday has a new job Monday manning
a toll booth, which she sucks at, too. Then she lasts two days as
stock girl at Zulu Records. On Thursday she's tending bar. Friday
in the wee hours she and Paul burgle her psycho ex-boyfriend
Ray Donovan (Lochlyn Munro)'s apartment to retrieve the compromising
photos he has of them. And Saturday she finds a new
“something” at her cousin Karen & Paul's
storybook wedding.
Ideology
When minister Herris is apprised through
his observant boy that Paul's been carrying on with another woman
in the week of his wedding, he's in a quandary (“I've got my
eye on you.”) Paul may not yet be ready to settle down with
Karen “for all eternity,” but it's the minister's pastoral
duty to wed eligible couples for the sake of stable married life. Permit me
to draw an analogy from the deleted “You, Me and
Jesus” scene and the good book the minister carries.
In a
single (cut) scene Karen learns that Paul wants to incorporate his
fundamental Christianity into their married life, and she's not too
keen on it. The apostle Paul back in the day spent two or three years
preaching in the bustling city of Corinth where Christianity had been
unknown until then. He got a lot of converts, not all of them as wedded
pairs, and some converts were espoused to non-christians as well.
Marital conflicts over religious mismatch led some to write him for
advice, and he responded telling them to try to convert the unbelieving
spouse, to stick with it regardless, but to let the other have a divorce
if wanted. In a follow-up letter, an oblique reference is made to
such circumstances in a rhetorical question: (2Cor. 6:15) “And … what
part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” Applied to going
through with a particular wedding, it is up to the principals to decide
if it is right for them; many but not all Christians decide not to
marry unbelievers, and it is their personal decision, not the apostle's.
As J.R.R. Tolkien's grown grandson put it, “We're not Hindus.
People have to be allowed to decide who they want to be with”
(45.) The apostle, however, uses the example of mismatch strife to
forbid incorporating heathenism into church services: (2Cor 6:14) “Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers: ...” Note: he forbids to a
congregation (“ye”) what he at most suggests to an individual
(thou.) In this movie a lot of controversy was generated when a rock
'n' roll band was booked for the wedding, but it was not in the minister's
purview to forbid it. However, he could use that as an example
to justify forbidding rock 'n' roll music in church services proper.
If Paul bales on Karen, what will happen with him and Becky? Good question. Hard to say. It's probably along the lines of, (Prov. 30:18-19) “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” An eagle is hard to track because of its unpredictable swoops, a serpent because of its slithering, and a ship moved by unseen winds and currents. “A man with a maid” is triply tricky. Here we see Paul climbing out a window and down a tree, he and Becky trying to navigate a fire escape, and them crouching in a bathtub under scrutiny of a police-trained guard dog. Who knows how or if they'll turn out as a couple?
Production Values
“” (2003) was directed by Chris Koch. Its story was written by Greg Glienna and developed into a screenplay by Pete Schwaba & Matt Tarses. It stars Jason Lee, Julia Stiles, Selma Blair, and Thomas Lennon. The acting was credible in a plot that seemed to move every which way. Julia Stiles was hot stuff and Selma Blair appropriately scary.
MPAA rated it PG–13 for language, crude humor, some sexual content and drug references. It was in part filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It has a runtime of 1¾ hours. Good camera work contributed to an expectant feel. The humor was genuine and not overplayed.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
I thought AGT was altogether enjoyable and engaging. It's not the funniest movie I've ever seen, but it did the job. It's a great one to fill in the gaps of your movie experience.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations from the Authorized Version. Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769. Software.
Tolkien, Simon. The King of Diamonds. Copyright © 2011 by Simon Tolkien. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org