Jenny's Wedding | Film review - Katherine Heigl gets in a tangle before she ties the knot | Movie Talk | What's on TV

(Image credit: © Signature Entertainment)

Don’t be fooled by the presence of romantic-comedy regular Katherine Heigl in the lead. There are chuckles to be had, but Jenny’s Wedding is actually more earnest social-issue movie than larky rom-com.

The issue is gay marriage, with Heigl’s title character planning to marry Kitty (Alexis Bledel), her girlfriend of five years. The trouble is, she hasn’t told her family she is gay. Will her straight-laced Catholic parents (Tom Wilkinson, Linda Emond) come round before her big day? Will her bitter sister (Grace Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep) forgive the secrecy?

Jennys Wedding Alexis Bledel Katherine Heigl.jpg — (Image credit: © Signature Entertainment)

Writer-director Mary Agnes Donoghue’s heart is clearly in the right place, and the rousing speeches she gives Heigl do carry weight, but Jenny's relationship with Kitty is so thinly sketched that it’s the stumbling emotional journeys taken by the other members of her family that prove more engaging.

Certificate 12. Runtime 91 mins. Director Mary Agnes Donoghue

Jenny's Wedding is available on DVD from Precision Pictures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIw0yX8gIs4

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.