YMMV / A Wedding (1978)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Mack is said to be an art collector, but whether this means that he does it as a profession or that he's Idle Rich and living off his wife's money is unclear. The latter possibility could cast a different light on his efforts to have an affair with Tulip while claiming that they've had a Love at First Sight moment.
• Better on DVD: The large number of characters and subplots to keep track of mean that the film can seem better on repeat viewings.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Dino's Bourgeois Bohemian great-aunt presents a nude portrait of the bride as a wedding present. The bride's sister gets naked in the middle of the room to make a pose similar to the portrait (which is never mentioned again). Both moments stand out as particularly shocking and absurd.
• Broken Base: Even among fans of Robert Altman, this is a divisive film. You either think it's one of his most underrated efforts, being a hilarious satirical masterpiece with a great Ensemble Cast, or you think it's one of his worst films, being a labored, not-particularly-funny comedy that never does justice to its many characters and subplots.
• Cult Classic: The film isn't one of the movies most associated with Altman, made less than four million dollars, is derided by some of the more prominent Altman enthusiasts, and is hard to find on home video or streaming services. Nonetheless, the mixture of comedy and drama, the high quality of the acting, and some of the social commentary cause the film to regularly appear on list of Altman's most underrated movies.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Muffin's sister Buffy may have an intellectual disability, as she rarely talks, often puts her hands against her ears, splashes water at her own reflection, has difficulty counting, and strips down in public to stand in front of a nude painting of her sister.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Several of the film's forty or so minor characters are nearly as well-liked as the core characters.
  • Reedley is well-liked for being a sensible Manly Gay character.
  • Dino's ex-girlfriend Tracy only shows up about halfway through the movie, but is quite enjoyable in her role as a bitter ex-girlfriend and Upper-Class Equestrian played by future sitcom star Pam Dawber.
  • Muffin's brother Hughie, due to his close relationship with his family members and his actor's later appearance in Breaking Away with one of his co-stars from this film.
  • Jim the gardener and Muffin's Aunt Marge's budding romance isn't necessary for the plot, but several reviewers still find it interesting and endearing.
  • Security guards Jeff Kuykendall, Koons, and Lombardo, due to their overzealous efforts to guard the wedding gifts.
  • Reverend Rutledge The Fundamentalist does little to affect the plot, but has a decent amount of fans due to how his actor (a composer of the score of multiple Altman films) had never acted before but still does a good job of giving Rutledge various humorous but not entirely one-dimensional lines.
  • Florence the wedding photographer, due to her mixture of dedicated professionalism and funny reactions to repeated bad luck.
  • The Romani violinist has no name or dialogue and is third-to-last in the credits, but is a hard character to forget due to her musical skills and presence in the interesting basement restaurant.
• He's Just Hiding: While the other characters assume that Tracy dies in the car crash with Briggs, the viewers might question whether she really was with him. It isn't clear how many people are in the car when it leaves, and Tracy and Briggs only have one conversation earlier in the movie, which doesn't seem to set up a strong enough bond for them to steal a car together to spite the newlyweds.
• Jerkass Woobie: Bridesmaid Rosie Bean can be pushy and insensitive, but her husband is having an affair with her best friend, and the ending scene hints that she knows this.

  Rosie: Yeah, I think [my wedding] was the happiest day of my life. But you're right, when it's over it gets real sad.

• Just Here for Godzilla: Breaking Away fans who aren't sure what to think about A Wedding as a whole still enjoy seeing Dennis Christopher and Paul Dooley play a father and son a year before doing the same in the former movie.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Mork & Mindy star Pam Dawber debuts here as Dino's ex-girlfriend.
  • It was filmed in Chicago, and Altman enlisted a bunch of young local actors who'd go onto greater things to help out. Look closely and you can spot the likes of Joan Allen, Terry Kinney, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Sinise, and George Wendt as extras.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Dino's twin sister Daphne barely has any dialogue or significance after the thirty minute mark, despite an interesting introduction and her close ties to so many of the main characters.
  • The cook's son and his new wife appear to be on familiar terms with the Corelli family, are hiding their marriage to avoid overshadowing the other newlyweds, and seem happy and stable enough that they could have been a Beta Couple to Muffin and Dino. However, they do little if anything of note after arriving back at the mansion with the wedding party.
  • Many fans wish the neurotic wedding planner played by Geraldine Chaplin had gotten a substantial subplot and feel that she is absent from the film for too much of the film due to the Four Lines, All Waiting plot. The chaotic events at the reception could have given her a lot more to do.
  • The quirky William Williamson is played by dependable Altman regular Bert Remsen and is the only guest outside of either family's immediate circle of close acquaintances, employees, and extended relatives to attend the wedding. He had the potential to be an Audience Surrogate or have scenes emphasizing why he attends the wedding when most people shun Luigi, but he barely knows anyone there and has almost no lines after the scene where he's greeted.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Luigi's brother is portrayed as a Lovable Sex Maniac, but the way he follows the clearly uninterested photographer hasn't aged well.
  • The way Dr. Meecham keeps groping women while claiming that he's brushing things like cigarette ash off their chest probably wouldn't be played for laughs in a modern film.
• Values Resonance:
  • Gay groomsman Reedley is devoid of any stereotypical traits, his sexuality is an Open Secret at the Military School, and only a few, mostly unsympathetic, characters display any obvious homophobia toward him.
  • Rather than ignore the risks of drunk driving, Reedley tries to sober Dino up after seeing that he's drunk, saying that he's not going to let him drive off for the honeymoon in that condition.
• Vindicated by History: Most prominent critics dismissed the movie when it first came out (although Roger Ebert gave it three-and-a-half stars) but it has developed a decent number of supporters since then and has high audience and critics scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
• The Woobie:
  • Tulip's husband mistreats her to the point where she contemplates having an affair, she has to go through a lot of grief and stress involving her daughters in the final act (including thinking that Muffin has died in a car crash), and she ultimately calls off the affair due to feeling that her scare was God punishing her.
  • After his mother-in-law forbade him from discussing his past and contacting his beloved family, Luigi has been mistaken for a mobster after marrying an Uptown Girl who has since become a drug addict. Then, like Tulip, Luigi has to deal with thinking his son has died in a car crash.
  • Clarice has a definite air of sadness due to the way she is forced to keep her relationship with Randolph the butler private, and how she is one of the first people to learn that her mother has died and has to keep that secret for most of the movie while experiencing confusion about whether it's true or not.
  • Regina's difficulty maintaining connections with the people around her and addiction to heroin (which is implied to have started to deal with the pain of a difficult birth) give her a lost and sad feel.

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