💬 Hung Up Asks: What’s Your Favorite Wedding Movie?

'Question for the culture'

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Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia. Photo: Screenshot.

Maybe it’s because Melancholia came to mind in a post a few months ago, or maybe it’s because I had nine weddings last year (!) and have six¹ this year — I have weddings on the brain. Watching your friends get married is so lovely; watching the way some random plus one can embarrass himself is divine.

I love good weddings, but I am obsessed with bad weddings. (If I’ve been to your wedding, I’m not talking about you.)² At a wedding last year, the program shared the favorite wedding movies or scenes of everyone in the wedding party. Genius, clever, fun — what a great talking point! (Andrew’s selection Step Brothers; mine would be Casino³. Both twisted selections, obviously, but maybe in different ways? I haven’t actually seen all of Step Brothers, but don’t tell anyone.⁴)

So: what’s your favorite wedding movie, or your favorite movie that prominently features a wedding? I have watched Rachel Getting Married one hundred times. I love it except for a lot of the sentimental dead brother stuff, which softens its sharp edges. Succession’s two weddings — Shiv’s and Lady Caroline’s — are fair game, too. My VHS of Runaway Bride (Mother Julia!) basically raised me in ways I’m still talking about in therapy. Every movie should end as The Best Man does … give me a big dance scene!

At some point after college I outgrew Bridesmaids and favored the Kleinfeld-battery acid of Bachelorette. The Wedding Banquet is resplendent. Devoted Hung Up readers⁵ will recall that I know most of The Philadelphia Story by heart. Margot at the Wedding, Birth, The Wedding Planner, even The Wedding Date (sans the Debra Messing of it all). There’s a Robert Altman wedding movie (A Wedding) that I keep trying to track down a link to. I have never liked Four Weddings and a Funeral except for this screenshot from my meme folder which should come into rotation again whenever I’m thinking about Challengers: