Sister of the Groom Movie Storyline. Audrey (Alicia Silverstone) attempts to stop her brother from marrying a young French woman during their rescheduled wedding weekend in the Hamptons, which happens to be the same weekend she turns 40. Sister-in-laws-to-be from two very different cultures and stages of life clash and struggle to connect and get along. Because of this tension, Audrey loses control and attempts to undermine the wedding, only to realize she can’t stand in the way of true love.
Sister of the Groom is a 2020 American comedy film, written and directed by Amy Miller Gross. It stars Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott, Jake Hoffman, Mathilde Ollivier, Charlie Bewley, Noah Silver, Abigail Marlowe, Mark Blum, Julie Engelbrecht and Ronald Guttman. It was released on December 18, 2020 by Saban Films.
Film Review for Sister of the Groom
Sister of the Groom is an almost-delightful rom-com, but it never commits to the bit. On her 40th birthday, Audrey (Silverstone) is already dealing with layers of midlife crisis. Her career is dead, she hates her body, and she’s haunted by an ex-boyfriend despite being happily married. Her anguish boils over at the rushed wedding between her brother Liam (Hoffman) and his too-perfect French bride Clemence (Ollivier). But with so many problems to solve and only a 92-minute runtime to do it, Audrey is too winded by the end of the film to arrive at meaningful solutions.
We open with a homemade music video of Clemence, a singer, twirling and luxuriating in her own indie drawl. The harmless silliness gave me a light laugh as it’s revealed that Liam is operating the camera from a pool chair, clearly put up to this by no will of his own. But instead of building the ridiculousness of the video to a peak, it fizzles out with an understated transition to Audrey and her husband Ethan (Scott) listening to the song and making inexplicably forced small talk.
This is the first of several times that writer-director Amy Miller Gross undercuts her own jokes. Between a “fairy godmother,” a scrape with MDMA, and of course, Audrey’s rivalry with Clemence, there’s ample ground to go for broke and embrace the absurd. And with the simple hilarity of a film like Clueless on her résumé, Silverstone surely could have handled it.
But Gross never takes the leap, nor does she cultivate enough tenderness to make the subtlety gratifying. It’s hard to get behind the humor of a screechy, pushy “girl fight” between the sisters-in-law when there aren’t any enjoyable female relationships to balance it out. And when Audrey fights with her brother, cries with her father, or tries to make fun of her late mother, the relationships hadn’t developed enough to let me know why I should care.
The film’s most compelling aspect is Audrey’s struggle with a hernia she sustained from giving birth years ago. Amid all of the superficial spats, her body image was the only conflict I still felt invested in by the end. But it never wraps up. Audrey and Ethan simply drive off into the morning, leaving me behind with no lessons learned besides that I should never drug my brother’s wife.
Sister of the Groom (2020)
Directed by: Amy Miller Gross
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott, Jake Hoffman, Mathilde Ollivier, Charlie Bewley, Noah Silver, Abigail Marlowe, Mark Blum, Julie Engelbrecht, Ronald Guttman
Screenplay by: Amy Miller Gross
Production Design by: Eve McCarney
Cinematography by: Charles Libin
Film Editing by: Abbi Jutkowitz
Costume Design by: David Anthony Crowley
Set Decoration by: Heidi Strykiewicz
Music by: Jay Lifton
MPAA Rating: R for language, drug use, some sexual content and brief nudity.
Distributed by: Saban Films
Release Date: December 18, 2020
Visits: 41
