The Wedding Singer

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When it comes to Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, you're a little har-pressed to think of a lot of cuter couples. Between 'The Wedding Singer' and '50 First Dates', both are rather charming romantic comedies featuring the two falling for each other in one way or another. I never did see 'Blended', but I've also heard that it's not so good, so I may just stick with the first two.

In Ridgefield, New Jersey, wedding singer Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) performs at a wedding where he meets a waitress named Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore). Here we learn that Robbie is getting ready to marry his fiancée, Linda (Angela Featherstone), and Julia is anxiously awaiting a wedding proposal from her beau, a successful businessman named Glenn (Matthew Glave).

On Robbie's wedding day, however, Linda ditches him, sending him into a downward spiral. He still attends weddings for work though, and eventually develops a solid friendship with Julia, as she helps him through his hard time. Meanwhile, she has finally been proposed to - a wedding Robbie promised to sing at when they first met. Holding to his promise, he starts to develop feelings for Julia, and though things are relatively predictable from here, the execution is interesting. It's one of the first (if not the first) films that call back the 80s, just 8 years after they ended.

I remember going to the theater to watch this, and it seemed like a big deal to look back on what the 80s was like. But when you compare it to thinking of 2012 today, using that 8 year gap, it doesn't feel like enough time has passed for it to really matter. I suppose the best similarity nowadays would be 'Avengers: Endgame', as they time travel to 2012 and the setting of the first 'Avengers' film. It felt like time passed, but it didn't feel like a whole new era. It just felt like part of the same long 11-year era. That's just how big the divide was between what was considered "80s" and what was considered "90s" was (although it can't be denied a lot of the 80s spilled over into the early 90s).

Back tot he film at hand, however, this was the film that made Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore a new, solid, on-screen power couple of sorts. I personally considered them to be taking the baton from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan ('Joe vs The Volcano', 'Sleepless in Seattle', and 'You've Got Mail', released the same year as this). Drew is constantly charming us with her sweet, good nature, and Adam is constantly charming us with his sense of humor and music. The film ends with such a feel-good scene involving a new song by Robbie, and at the risk of presenting a spoiler (22 years later), he's accompanied by Billy Idol, who adds the little cherry on top of it all.

I did have a bit of a hard time going between which romantic Sandler comedy was better; this or '50 First Dates'. Truth be told, there's a part of me that likes '50 First Dates' just a touch more, but this was the movie that started it all between Sandler and Barrymore, and we are looking at his "Golden Age" after all. I'd personally consider this one of the finest feel-good movies out there. It gets dark in moments during Robbie's breakdown, but it's very much a film that reminds you that when things look their darkest, there's some sort of light at the end of that tunnel. It always leaves me with a charmed smile on my face.
Angela Featherstone

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