Metacritic Film

Son of the Bride

Starring Ricardo Darín, Héctor Alterio, Norma Aleandro, Eduardo Blanco, Natalia Verbeke, Gimena Nóbile, David Masajnik, and Claudia Fontán

MPAA RATING: R

Sony Pictures Classics
Foreign
124 minutes | Color
Argentina
Released In Theaters March 22, 2002

At age 42, Rafael Belvedere (Darín) is having a crisis. He's overwhelmed by his numerous responsibilities and just isn't having any fun. But when his father makes the decision to fulfill his mother's dream of getting married in a church, it gives Rafael a task to focus on, stirring him to action, and bringing the family together to create a new memory they can share. (Sony Pictures Classics)

WRITTEN BY
Juan José Campanella
Fernando Castets

DIRECTED BY
Juan José Campanella

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

68 / 100

Critic Reviews

100 USA Today
One of the best films of the year.
100 New York Daily News
Exquisitely moving story.
100 Wall Street Journal
A drama of rare distinction, and wonderfully funny in the bargain.
90 Variety
Unflaggingly genial and universally funny.
90 Time
Wry, richly layered, wonderfully observed Argentine film.
88 Boston Globe Jonathan Perry
Fully realizes its ambitions as a tale about confronting and navigating life's land mines with humor, tenacity, and hope.
88 Chicago Tribune
It's fresh, funny, biting, fast-paced and reasonably perceptive about people and their problems.
88 Charlotte Observer
Turn a potentially unforgettable movie into a broad crowd-pleaser that sustains itself on three acting performances.
83 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The film below it is such an entertaining and poignantly bittersweet take-down of a good man's midlife crisis that the translation still works like a charm.
80 Washington Post
Sweet without being saccharine, sad without being maudlin and funny without being forced.
80 Washington Post
Even the digressions are funny.
75 Portland Oregonian
A movie that will wear you out and make you misty even when you don't want to be. It's a gushy, sometimes-maudlin, often-charming movie that highlights the importance of little things.
75 Philadelphia Inquirer
It's a wise and endearing little film.
75 Christian Science Monitor
Energetic acting and perky filmmaking help this likable Argentine comedy-drama avoid the sentimentality that intermittently threatens it.
75 Miami Herald
Offers a rose-colored picture of life, but one that Campanella makes ring true.
75 San Francisco Chronicle
Manages to be affectionate without drawing too deeply from a well of sugar and schmaltz.
70 TV Guide
Sensitive and expertly acted crowd-pleaser that isn't above a little broad comedy and a few unabashedly sentimental tears.
70 Los Angeles Times
A warm and affectionate Argentine film of wide appeal that is an Academy Award nominee in the foreign-language category.
70 New Times (L.A.)
It is a moving and solidly entertaining comedy/drama that should bolster director and co-writer Juan José Campanella's reputation in the United States.
70 Salon.com Jeff Stark
Crisply agreeable picture.
67 Entertainment Weekly
Has an appealing modesty, but director Juan José Campanella works so hard to keep everything soft and winsome and charming that he cushions the understatement into blandness.
67 Austin Chronicle
Winning and emotionally punchy film.
50 Chicago Reader
I didn't feel I was wasting my time but I started looking at my watch long before it was over.
50 New York Post
Has some truly touching and funny moments. But it goes on for too long and bogs down in a surfeit of characters and unnecessary subplots.
50 LA Weekly
Although it's better written and directed than the average Nora Ephron bagatelle, it's easy to imagine Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan slipping into a remake of Son of the Bride.
50 Village Voice
In its details, though, Juan José Campanella's movie works beautifully: The actors are all superb when the florid demands of the story allow them elbowroom.
50 The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Mark Peranson
What starts off as a possible Argentine "American Beauty" reeks like a room stacked with pungent flowers.
40 The New York Times
May be as exhaustive a study of one man's midlife crisis as has ever been brought to the screen. But as the movie lopes along, exhaustive becomes exhausting.
30 The Onion (A.V. Club)
The best that can be said of Son Of The Bride is that it's attractively photographed. But, then, so was the Hindenburg explosion, and this packs far less excitement into its two shapeless hours.

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