Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.5

License to Wed Blu-ray Movie Review

A disappointing comedy is also a disappointing Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 10, 2007

I’m pretty sure I’m not learning anything from this.

I made it a point to ask our review editor to give me License To Wed for review purposes. I'm a newlywed, married some six months ago, and my wife and I partook in premarital counseling together. I figured this movie would be relevant to a recent life experience, giving me a unique insight into the plot, and would be something we could both enjoy while I watched it for this review. I'm sorry to report that License To Wed failed to live up to our expectations. Of course, this movie is not meant to be wholly realistic, which I found to be the primary problem with it. Instead, it portrays a seemingly overzealous pastor who is determined to put the happy couple through the ringer to make sure they are ready for holy matrimony. By the end, as you might guess, it'll turn out that his antics save the couple's marriage. Surely I'm not giving anything away here. Unless License To Wed is going to be the first movie you have ever watched, you know how it will end.

Cue the 'Jeopardy' music.

John Krasinski (The Holiday) plays Ben, a single guy who one day runs into Sadie (Mandy Moore, Chasing Liberty), a single girl, at a coffee shop. The two fall in love and Ben proposes to Sadie at her parent's 30 year wedding anniversary celebration. She of course says yes, making her parents happy. The first conflict occurs moments later when Ben declares his intention to marry her in the Caribbean (pay attention, this is important at the end!) but Sadie has always dreamed of getting married at a local church where Reverend Frank (Robin Williams, Night at the Museum) is the pastor. The couple meets with him, and he informs them that his only opening to marry them in the next two years is in three weeks. Though tight, the couple accepts. Frank informs them that they will still need to complete his premarital counseling course, which normally takes 3 months, in the alloted 3 week time span. The reverend puts them through various ridiculous and cringe-worthy tests, including carrying around hideous and frightening robotic babies complete with blue feces, making Sadie drive blindfolded, and forcing the couple to pretend to fight over a flat tire. He even has his young assistant "Choir Boy" (Josh Flitter, Nancy Drew) bug the couple's apartment. By the time the three weeks is up, will the couple be closer together or will the counseling drive them apart?

As director Ken Kwapis says, the purpose of these odd exercises is "to raise issues that married couples will face over the years." Perhaps it was our recent excellent premarital counseling experience, but this movie failed to capture the spirit of what such counseling is all about. I find the best comedies take situations and events based on real life and add a humorous spin to them as they are. This film, rather than mimicking pre-marital counseling, completely re-invents it and the result is wholly unbelievable and a wholly unfunny movie. Perhaps the best sequences in the movie are when Reverend Frank and Choir Boy listen in to what Ben and Sadie are talking about in the apartment. That's an example of what I am talking about. It's funny, takes reality a step further than it would normally go, and it works rather well in the film. It's the rest of the gags that make this movie, well, gag-inducing.

The best thing about the experience my wife and I had with License To Wed is that we didn't waste our money seeing it in theaters. We thought about it but saw Live Free or Die Hard that night instead, which we both actually liked. Hooray for guy movies! My wife and I expected something that resembled our experience but portrayed in a humorous manner, and perhaps that is our fault for raising our expectations to expect art to imitate life with a humorous spin. Instead, License To Wed is a flat, uninspired, wholly predictable comedy with tired gags, such as when Ben breaks into Frank's house and must confront his oversized, drooling dog. The situation is resolved with Ben taming the dog and sneaking out of the house in the nick of time. Yawn. There were a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments, but overall, for us anyway, the movie was a complete flop.

License to Wed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080p and in a 2.40:1 frame, License To Wed is a rather ordinary looking high definition image. I was neither overly impressed nor overly disappointed with the movie's appearance. Black levels struck me as being a tad light, but overall more solid than not. Flesh tones strayed to the reddish side, but never annoyingly so. The image appeared to be very slightly washed out throughout and the overall image was at times a tad too soft. Colors were bright, but not extremely vivid resulting a rather plain looking color palette. The print itself is pristine. I noticed no discernible nicks or blemishes or dirt on it. I would say this transfer just missed the mark of being very good. It's certainly acceptable, and there is nothing overtly wrong with it, but it just didn't quite make the grade.

License to Wed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This disc features a Dolby Digital 5.1 track alongside a 4.6 Mbps uncompressed PCM track. I was very disappointed with what we get here. License To Wed is certainly not a film that lends itself particularly well to a robust and engaging sonic experience, but it's such a dull soundtrack that it adds nothing at all to the high-definition experience. The only positive I noted was that some of the instrumental music, especially early on in the film, sounded warm and pleasing. Other than that, we get a most uninspiring listening experience. This is a very front heavy track. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I heard anything emanating from the rear speakers. Dialogue was tiny and spiritless. There were a few instances of separation across the front soundstage, but the vast majority of the track flowed from the center channel. This is a very pedestrian high definition soundtrack.

License to Wed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner has chosen to leave the cupboard rather bare in the extras department with this release. We get a commentary track featuring director Ken Kwapis talking over 12:15 worth of deleted scenes presented in 480p. Kwapis goes in-depth here, discussing each deleted scene in detail and providing some very good reasons as to why they were cut. I enjoyed the basketball sequence more than anything from the actual film. I would have welcomed a full-length commentary from Kwapis. He sounds like an interesting man with a lot to say about this movie, and hearing his take may have changed my opinions on why this film fell short of the mark for me. The only other supplement to be found is a Fun + Games section featuring Ask Choir Boy. The viewer can select one of twelve shorts where Choir Boy plays a Dr. Laura-esque role, answering love life questions via a call-in show (note that there appear to be 16 selections, but only twelve work). Some of the selections are less than 10 seconds in length and are generally not funny.

License to Wed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

License To Wed takes a great concept for a comedy and completely fails to deliver on it. Perhaps those who have not gone through premarital counseling themselves, especially recently, would have found this film more agreeable. I expected a comedy that approached the subject honestly and within reason that added some humor to the matter, but there is little sense of realism to the rigors of Revered Frank's sessions. Instead they are a series of ridiculous events intended to garner a cheap laugh. Technically, this Blu-ray disc is pretty underwhelming. Sporting mediocre video and a subpar high-definition sound experience, License To Wed once again fails to impress. A very small set of supplements make this disc just not worth your time. I really wanted this movie to work, to be something my wife and I could watch over and over together that would remind us of a special and important time in our lives but alas, License To Wed will now find a permanent home on my bookshelf where it will collect dust and cat hair for all eternity. This is one to pass on completely.