Son of the Bride (2001)

This magnificent Argentinean film centers on Rafael (Ricardo Darín), a restaurateur whose life is becoming a knot of stress and failing relationships. When his father, Nino (Héctor Alterio), decides that after 44 years of marriage he wants to give his wife, Norma (Norma Aleandro), the church wedding she always wanted, Rafael scoffs; Norma has advanced Alzheimer's and doesn't recognize where she is or who's around her. After Rafael has a heart attack, he realizes he has to change his life--but when he makes changes, he discovers how much of his life he'd been taking for granted, and that he may have cast aside the very things he seeks. Son of the Bride is smartly and richly written, directed with generosity and precision, and full of astonishingly full performances. The story's full of clever touches, but it never lets cleverness overwhelm humanity. Simply a superb movie. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

A touching yet comedic look at self discovery Argentina-style

SON OF THE BRIDE is a truly original take on the middle aged crisis of Rafael Belvedere.Though he has made a huge success of himself in the business world by rescuing his parents' declining restaurant,his life has been characterized by seeming failures in his relationships to his parents( a couple who lovingly have lasted 44 years!), to his ex-wife,daughter,childhood chums,his present love interest and most particularly his mother,who is in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease.A heart attack and 15 days in the ICU starts Rafael on a journey to self dicovery about himself and what is most important in life.This is definitely a touching and yet quite comedic process that Rafael endures to reach his epiphany.(THIS IS BY NO MEANS A SYRUPY-EVERYTHING COMES OUT ROSEY HALLMARK FILM!!!!)His biggest hurdle seems to be the way he SEEMS TO THINK that his mother used to think about him-that he was a loser,lazy,unfocused and a failure.It is through watching the drama with his mother's disease that helps him to come to his revelatory moment.
This is a jammed packed script heavy with much dialogue and extremely well-framed and well-developed characters.All 124 minutes are used wisely (even almost too much so!)to tie together all of the chararacters and plots and subplots to a very satisfying conclusion.This film is about MANY things, and yet it is about one thing....learning to accept oneself.
FILMS LIKE THIS ARE EXTREMELY RARE and it is easy to see how it received an Academy Award nod as Best Foreign Film of 2001.EVERYTHING about this film,the acting,the screenplay,the music is totally FIRST RATE.Also, the SUBTITLES ARE IN YELLOW which is tremendous because they stand out.I actually forgot I was reading them because this film is THAT good.
For those interested in companion films with similar themes, I strongly suggest A SONG FOR MARTIN (NORWAY),IRIS (ENGLAND), THE FORGETTING:PBS and AUTUMN SPRING (CZECH REPUBLIC). February 14, 2007

All That Love

After watching "Son of the Bride" I found myself making comparisons to the movie "All that Jazz" which I had seen again recently. In both movies, we follow a middle-aged divorcee as he struggles in his stressful job, juggling his personal life around a young girl friend and his responsibilities to look after a young adolescent daughter. Chain-smoking as he struggles to maintain his focus, interacting out of necessity with his ex-wife, the stress builds itself up to a heart attack. It is from that point that the movies finish in different directions. While "All that Jazz" becomes a look, with regret, to the past, "Son of the Bride" becomes a look, with hope, to the future.

This movie turns out to be quite the comedy. We get a sense of comedy from the alzheimers-suffering mother who can swear like a sailor even when talking to a young child. However, after about the first two thirds of the movie, I found myself laughing out loud on several occassions. Part of the reason for that is how well the script and direction set up the characters and scenarios so well. As excellent as the humor is, the real smiles we get are for the endearing statement of love that the movies strongly delivers. In perhaps the signature scene of the film, our main character, Rafael, debates a Catholic priest over the "44 years of love" that his parents have achieved. The priest doesn't exactly disagree with the point but can't see beyond the rules and regulations that obscure the truth. There's another scene when Rafael's girl friend talks about what she was looking for in a relationship (and introduces us to Dick Watson) that further underscores the love of Rafael's parents. However, these and other scenes don't tell the story as well as the actors Hector Alterio and Norma Aleandro do themselves. The story culminates in a feel good finish that puts all the stress and chaos behind and gives us a bright future by showing us where true happiness comes from. October 1, 2006

Human and

How easy is to put aside what give us life, how easy is to fall into "reality". This movie is about the importance of recovering what we've lost in the past for being "somebody". Our whole life can change in five seconds, but it seems that we always deny this fact. When watching this movie you'll remember that we are the products of a not-so-good social machinery. Highly recommended for those who love life. September 2, 2006

Life is what you choose to make of it

Watching this movie, I couldn't help but cry. It is not hard to identify with Rafael, this guy who is so submerged in his the world of his business, that he doesn't have enough time to give to others around him (his mother/father, his girlfriend, his daughter from a marriage that also failed due to the same thing...) It's sad to realize how many of us fall in this category, where a business meeting can take precedence over those, more important things in one's life, but it happens. And Ricardo Darín (Marco from "Nine Queens") does a magnificent job at playing the part in this movie.

Equally odd are the turns our lives need to take for us to realize how fragile we are and how important it is for us not to fall pray of the machine that hounds us and surrounds us. Rafael had to suffer a stroke to "get it", and even then, he'd still struggle against some deeply rooted habits. His dad and the strength of the love he still had for his mom, after over 44 years of marriage and in spite of her ailment (suffering from Alzheimer's), inspires Rafael to overcome any leftover stupidity in his life and not let the important things be lost without a fight.

"Son of the Bride" is an inspiring story with splendid acting by the entire cast, that reminds you of the important things in life and that life itself is indeed what you choose to make of it. December 23, 2005

The stuff that life is really made of...

A wonderfully touching movie and great acting, too. Don't miss it. August 4, 2005

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