Review: The Wedding Singer (1998) (Adam Sandler’s Best Film!)

Not porno tongue. Church tongue.

If an Adam Sandler movie comes my way, I’ll usually dodge it. Don’t get me wrong: I respect him for carving out a successful career in film comedies. But the films I’ve seen with him in are gargbage. There is one exception, however: The Wedding Singer! It’s twenty years old this year. It takes me back to a simpler time, where doing school homework was the only urgent thing on my mind! The Wedding Singer was also the film where I had my first ever date! So it holds fond memories for me…but after watching it recently, I found that nostalgia wasn’t the only reason why it’s the only Sandler film I’ll watch.

Here’s the story: Adam Sandler plays Robbie Hart, a wedding singer who’s left at the alter by his fiancée. Beforehand, at a wedding, he meets and befriends waitress Julia (played by Drew Barrymore). She helps him through his sadness after being left at the alter, and he slowly falls in love with her…but she’s engaged to a bloke! Cue lots of comedy and drama as Robbie attempts to woo Julia…

Of course, in any romantic comedy, you want sparks between the two leads who are meant to be together. Most rom coms fall down at this point. If you can’t believe that the two leads even like each other, then where’s the drama? But Sandler and Barrymore have a palpable chemistry together. They didn’t exploit it in 50 First Dates (which is rather awful), but here you can believe that they could fall in love with each other. Every moment of them on the screen feels genuine. That’s a big positive!

Julia Gulia…

I just want to someone to hold me and tell me everything’s going to be alright

Another positive is the 80s setting, anticipating the wave of 80s nostalgia we are enduring/have endured over the past few years. It was only eight years after the 80s finished, but The Wedding Singer feels authentic yet nostalgic. There are the typical 80s tunes (“Video Killed The Radio Star,” “White Wedding”), and they squeeze laughs out of the contemporary shock of having music on CDs etc. It’s all executed wonderfully. And, as I’m a huge fan of 80s nostalgia, more of the references hit home as I’ve grown older.

But a romantic comedy is nothing without the comedy, right? For once, Sandler is actively funny and involved in a funny film! Barrymore adds a few laughs, but Sandler is at the top his game here (if that’s possible). There’s Steve Buscemi, who has some great one-liners, and Alexis Arquette, who plays a Boy George fanatic. The laughs run smoothly with the drama and emotions, neither one clouding the other. Of course, you’ll never get a better mix of romance and comedy than When Harry Met Sally…but this comes pretty darned close.

If only every Adam Sandler film was this funny! If only every Adam Sandler film was this emotional! I guarantee you’ll have tears in your eyes at the end. It has all the elements of a great rom com blended together expertly. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe at the 80s hairdos. But most of all, you’ll have fun. And you’ll look at Adam Sandler in a whole new way.

VERDICT: 9/10. One of my favourite romantic comedies. Sandler and Barrymore have great chemistry, and the romance and the comedy hit lofty notes. Sandler’s best film by a country mile!

What did you think of  The Wedding Singer (1998)? Leave your thoughts/comments below!

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