Today’s quick review: The Week Of. Kenny Lustig (Adam Sandler), a family man from Long Island, has his hands full getting ready for his daughter Sarah’s (Allison Strong) wedding. As the wedding guests arrive in town, Kenny scrambles to keep his budget wedding venue from falling apart. But Kenny’s pride keeps him from letting Kirby Cortice (Chris Rock), the father of the groom and a wealthy heart surgeon, from paying for a better one.
The Week Of is a comedy starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. The duo play a pair of father-in-laws trying to prepare the best wedding possible for their children. Over the course of a week, nearly everything goes wrong for them, from leaky ceilings to unstable family members, culminating in a wedding neither one of them expected. The Week Of has a fine premise but has a hard time making it work, with most of its efforts falling somewhat flat.
The Week Of’s main failing is that it gets mired in family-driven comedy that rarely hits the mark. Nearly all of the humor comes from the extended families of the bride and groom. In principle, this should work out, but the families get stuck awkwardly between cartoonish and ordinary. A handful of colorful characters push the movie towards full-blown comedy, but too many of the family are normal people for the jokes to feel natural.
The Week Of’s other failing is that it skimps on heart. Nominally, the movie is about two men having to say goodbye to their grown children. But the movie spends very little time developing this, instead focusing on Kenny’s venue woes and the antics of the extended family. The consequence of this is that Kenny and Sarah barely get any time together onscreen, while Kirby’s time with his son is basically nonexistent.
All of this makes The Week Of a step down from other movies with similar premises. Instead of being an all-out comedic romp, The Week Of gets stuck on family foibles that are a little too real to be entertaining. Instead of building to the tender moment of a father giving away his daughter, The Week Of tacks it on at the end. The result is a movie that goes through the motions, but not well enough to stand out. Approach with caution.
For a more heartfelt movie about the lead-up to a wedding, try either version of Father of the Bride. For a more upbeat comedy about weddings, try Wedding Crashers. For a more playful, adventurous comedy about the father of the bride meeting the father of the groom, try original version of The In-Laws. For an Adam Sandler comedy that handles a quirky family with more tact, try Grown Ups.
[5.2 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6821012/). I give it a 6.0 for decent comedy that comes in the wrong proportions.