Some Mothers do Battle
When Chris (Frank Cappello) proposes to Jenna (Daniela Bobadilla - The Cheating Pact) it is a happy day for her and also her parents, Debra (Gail O'Grady - Sins of the Preacher) and Carl (Roy Werner). But for Debra that happiness turns to angst as not only have they a tight budget for the wedding but Jenna decides she wants to find and connect with her birth mother, Haley (Betsy Brandt), having been given up for adoption when she was just a baby. It doesn't take much effort for Jenna to get in touch with Haley who just happens to work as an event planner for a living. With Haley using her contacts she starts to organize Jenna's wedding and in doing so putting Debra's nose out of joint.
Before coming across "Mothers of the Bride" if someone had pitched me a storyline about a bride to be getting in touch with her biological mother I would have said it was a coin flip idea. On one hand they could go for the comedy of the mother and biological mother trying to out do each other and on the other they could go for the emotional drama of abandonment and resentment. Well in "Mothers of the Bride" they go the first route with a focus on the comedy of mothers competing to out do each other which on paper doesn't sound like a completely terrible idea. In fact I could have seen this being a bit like "Monster-in-Law" with that sort of comedy as well as some romance tossed in to the mix to add variety.
Unfortunately the comedy in "Mothers of the Bride" is the sort of forced, unsubtle and often dumb comedy which might entertain children but is lacking a certain finesse and intelligence which will entertain grown ups. Basically every single character in this comedy is painfully full on and horrendously over the top. In truth from an opening scene which features a hideous rap proposal you kind of know what sort of level the comedy in "Mothers of the Bride" is going to be at, which might be okay as viewing for the whole family on a Sunday afternoon but doesn't offer much else.
What this all boils down to is that it is hard for me to hide the fact that "Mothers of the Bride" was disappointing and I expected more laughs and less groans.
