Confetti (2006)

A wedding is difficult enough without competing with two other couples to win the "wedding of the year" competition for a bridal magazine. The three short-listed couples are assigned a pair of wedding planners who help them develop a distinctive theme for their nuptials. One couple choose a tennis theme, another a Busby Berkley muscial theme and the other couple choose to be true to themselves and choose "naturism".The film sees the development of the wedding plans over several weeks, and culminates in the big day itself when all three marriages are celebrated there and then at a classic awards ceremony complete with celebrity guests quaffing champagne at round tables while a panel of judges decide who wins the prize - a dream house.The film has so many well-known faces from British comedy it is hard to know who to mention first. Jimmy Carr does a marvellous job as the organiser of the competition, and Steven Mangan portrays a typically aggressive and touchy competitor. Martin Freeman provides an able depiction foil to Alison's Steadman's over-defensive mother-in-law to be. My favourite couple were Robert Webb and Olivia Colman who bravely have to perform much of the film naked. Webb's character is an unabashed militant naturist who tends to rip off his clothes wherever the fancy takes him, but his fiancée is more modest and seems to view the approaching wedding with a sense of dread.This film was totally enjoyable from start to end and in my view deserves a high score - not for its intellectual challenge but for its good humour and great acting from its cast who all have a track record for producing hilarious comedy.

What is a minister to do? This movie has all sorts of things I should be protesting...a LOT of nudity. Full, frontal, male and female, bouncing and jiggling, wiggling weenie, nudity. So do I say don't see it because of that? but God made us naked and the nudity is never jeered or leered over in the immature style of Benny Hill. The people just happen to be naked. It's a part of the plot, whether their lifestyle which is supposedly welcome will even be included since it was never approved of, and whether they will have the courage of their convictions to have their "naturalist" wedding their way or not.There is homosexuality. But there's never a push for a pro-gay agenda, no sexually deviant behavior, no lurid double-entendres that I could tell. Just a sweet couple who happen to both be male and very funny. Perhaps homosexuals might find it offensive as yet another stereotype but it isn't done heavy handedly or cruelly, just a bit broadly.The most objectionable part (other than the naked ones) was the use of the "F" word.So what's a minister to do? Well, if you'll keep it as our little secret, I'd say that married couples should rent it, view it in the privacy of their own bedrooms and laugh themselves silly. But order it through an online source so you don't have to show your face to a clerk.It's very funny, and very sweet, like a live-action Wallace and Gromit movie. It's just a shame there was all the nudity (which is why I deducted one point) because I can't admit watching it, much less recommend it to anyone I know. It's a guilty pleasure, but a very, very funny one with a sweet, memorable story you'll enjoy if you can get past the bouncing body parts.

To be honest, i don't understand all the great comments made about this film. It was bound to be a good film considering the excellent cast (from The Office, Alan Partridge, Spaced, all my top favourite comedies) and i was looking forward to seeing it. However, it did not make me laugh in the slightest. It has been filmed on the model of The Office, it's DEJAVU and doesn't work out in my opinion. The story line is silly, i didn't find it funny in the slightest and it bored me so much i would never watch it again ( i have just bought the DVD and i'm selling it back straightaway!) I would certainly not recommend this film to anyone unless you have time to waste.

I've been on a bit of a British kick lately after getting an all-region DVD player and some UK Region 2 discs. At the moment I have been checking out the hilarious series "Spaced" from the guys behind the hilarious Shaun of the Dead. One thing I love about British comedy is the use of many of the same actors/friends in a variety of projects; for instance, two of the stars from "Spaced" are in last year's brilliant mockumentary Confetti. Much like Christopher Guest does here in America, director/conceiver Debbie Isitt has compiled a who's who of actors from England for an almost totally improvised film. Like Guest's earlier work Best in Show, Confetti relies on a clash of disparate personalities on their quest to win a competition, here a house by having the most original wedding. This film has all the comedy and heart that I had hoped For Your Consideration would have and didn't. I thoroughly enjoyed the story progression and laughed right on through to the end.The fantastic Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson (along with a bit part from Mark Heap make up the duo from "Spaced") really carry the film with their natural comedic instincts and ability to drive a sequence of events forward. Much of the bottled up emotion and facial expressions that were such a great success in "The Office" make Freeman the most realistic character here as he and Stevenson attempt their musical wedding. Rounding out the other wedding contestants are the tennis pros Meredith MacNeill and Stephen Mangan (the attitude and destructive personalities remind me of Parker Posey and her husband role in Best in Show) and the naturalists Olivia Colman and Robert Webb (with impressive comfortability being nude almost the entire duration). The three couples have their moments with the quirky cast of characters included in their back-story, but also in their dealings with the wedding planners. Played perfectly by Vincent Franklin and Jason Watkins, these two really steal the show with their professionalism being brought to the edge of insanity at every turn. How they deal with the egos of the contestants and how they try to stay diplomatic with everyone is priceless.At the conclusion of the film, I really found myself enjoying all that went on. True, while the nudity was a bit off-putting, as I didn't realize how abundant it would be, it still worked in the context of the story; they needed to be nude in order for the audience to buy into their lifestyle and characters. The little things, like that, are done right here and make me think of what could be in these types of movies in America. All the players are improvising yet none are checking the realism of their words at the door, they swear and demean others as their characters believably would in those situations. There is no stipulation that would most likely be included in Hollywood of cleaning up your language for a PG13 rating. Also, I give the filmmakers kudos for not cheating the audience by having the whole film build up to the weddings and only showing us bit parts with reactions being more prominent. Thankfully we get to see the entirety of each wedding and that payoff really makes the ride completely worth it.