Reel Beach: It’s happily ever after in the movies…or is it?

By BERNIE FLETCHER

Summer is wedding season. What’s your favourite wedding scene at the movies? If you were giving advice, would you say ring or run, I do or I don’t, dreams or nightmares?

Romantics might love the traditional wedding in Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof to the tune of Sunrise, Sunset. Some might prefer the runaway bride in The Graduate. Mike Myers should have kept his elbows up before he wed in So I Married an Axe Murderer.

Beyoncé says you shoulda put a ring on it, but do you marry an evil prince or a dashing pirate (The Princess Bride)? Best not tie the knot with a gangster named Henry Hill (Goodfellas) or a king named Henry VIII (Anne of the Thousand Days).

Under no circumstances should you ask for a favour from the mob boss father of the bride (The Godfather).

What is a deal breaker? Kay (Elizabeth Taylor at 17) in Father of the Bride draws the line at honeymooning in a “fishing shack in Nova Scotia.”

A new film, Materialists, tells the story of a matchmaker in New York City (Dakota Johnson) who meets a rich man (Pedro Pascal) at a fancy wedding reception only to bump into her ex (Chris Evans) who is a struggling actor and a server at the event.

The writer/ director is Celine Song whose first feature film, Past Lives, was Oscar nominated for Best Picture Oscar and Best Original Screenplay. Song was born in Korea, raised in Markham and moved to New York. While trying to make it as a playwright, her day job was matchmaker, the marketing of the human heart.

Song came to realize that dating was too much about numbers…income, height, weight, age and not enough about the intangibles of true romance: “Love is an ancient mystery, a thing you cannot quantify.”

Marriage is a big decision.

Here are some made-in-Toronto films to advise deal or no deal, for better or worse. You are cordially invited to decide. What would you do?

1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002): Opa! Everybody and their mother-in-law loves this romantic comedy about the clash of cultures. Toula (Nia Vardalos) works at a travel agency on the Danforth and the family home is on Glenwood Crescent.
2. The Silent Partner (1979): There’s a beautiful wedding scene at Kew Beach in this thriller. The late, great John Candy gets hitched by the Boardwalk. Watch for this year’s TIFF to open Sept. 4 with John Candy: I Like Me about the life of the wonderful comic actor. The Amazon Prime documentary is produced by Ryan Reynolds and directed by Colin Hanks. One of Candy’s finest roles is in Uncle Buck which you can watch outdoors at Kew Gardens on July 23.
3. The Bride of Chucky (1998): Here comes the bride, there goes everyone else. Till death do us part! Maybe try not to marry a serial killer doll. The 24-hour wedding chapel was supposed to be in Niagara Falls, but was a set built on a vacant lot at 4300 Kingston Rd. in Scarborough.
4. Moonstruck (1987): Cher won an Oscar for Norman Jewison’s romance. She is engaged to one man but falls for his brother. Though set in New York, it was mostly filmed in Toronto as was Serendipity (2002) where romance is left to chance.
5. The In-Laws (2003): This is the remake of a better comedy, but there are lots of Lake Ontario scenes. What if your future in-laws are terrible trouble? The father of the groom happens to be a spy. Michael Douglas and Candice Bergen are on Woodbine Beach pretending to be Chicago.
6. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009): Would your future husband suddenly disappearing into the past or future be a deal-breaker? To have and to hold…or not? As Clare (Rachel McAdams) says, “It’s a problem.” Sure, but does he snore or smoke? You can catch Casa Loma, U of T, Massey Hall, Osgoode Hall and a store on the Danforth in Scarborough.
7. The Vow (2012): Rachel McAdams is very good in tear-jerker romances. Here she’s in a car accident and does not remember her hubby (Channing Tatum). The wedding reception is at Casa Loma. This was based on a true-life story, but the real couple who inspired the film divorced after 25 years of marriage. Ah, the course of true love never did run smooth.
8. Tommy Boy (1995): The groom is Tommy’s father (Brian Dennehy) and the bride is Bo Derek at the Parkwood Estate in Oshawa. Things turn sour in this comedy from Lorne Michaels as Tommy (Chris Farley) tries to save his auto parts business (set at the Distillery District).
9. That Old Feeling (1997): It was a perfect wedding except for two things: the bride’s parents. The divorced couple rekindle their romance during the reception at the Royal York Hotel. One-time Beach resident Jayne Eastwood is always a welcome sight in rom-coms.
10. Goin’ Down the Road (1970): Things weren’t so rosy in Eastwood’s first feature film where she “had to” get married. Director Don Shebib lived on Main Street as a boy and gives a time capsule view of the Toronto we once knew. Similar social norms are seen in Wedding in White (1972) where a father forces his pregnant teenage daughter to marry a much older man. Remember the term “shotgun wedding”?
11. How to Deal (2003): Halley (Mandy Moore) is a student (at Birchmount C.I.) with teen angst and an engaged sister: “Nice timing…tell your mom you’re getting married on the day she gets divorced. Why does love make people crazy?”
12. Wedding Season (2022): The pressure on Southeast Asian young people to marry is depicted with scenes at Gerrard India Bazaar (also Hollywood, Bollywood (2002) and Touch of Pink (2004).
13. Something Very Bad is Going to Happen (new) is about an ill-fated wedding with Oakville’s Adam DiMarco as the groom. There’s also a horror sequel Ready or Not: Here I Come with a deadly game of hide-and-seek on the wedding night (April 2026).