Monsoon Wedding

B+

Directed by Mira Nair

Mira Nair's much beloeved "Monsoon Wedding" is an intelligent and lovely meditation on family that is both understated and at times joyfully melodramatic, thankfully situating it closer to "After the Wedding" than "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in the annals of films with "Wedding" in their title.

Aditi's wedding is only a few days away and her father is rushing to get everything ready. Family members are coming in from all over the world and her groom, who she barely knows, is arriving from Houston. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, Aditi is having an affair with a married television host and is only planning on marrying because she doesn't believe her boyfriend will ever leave his wife for her. This is only the tip of the drama iceberg as a number of other secrets are slowly revealed before the wedding.

At its best "Monsoon Wedding" reminded me a great deal of some of Almodovar's more melodramatic fare in its interwoven universe of characters hiding secrets, repressing simmering passions, and living drama filled lives. Like a good Almodovar movie, the intrigue in Nair's film unfolds slowly, adding elements of suspense to everyday situations that, although not always believable, are nevertheless intriguing and make for juicy plotlines. Nair should also be commended for mixing in some rather controversial issues into the expected mix of generational clashes and cultural misunderstandings that dominate "Monsoon Wedding".
From a visual standpoint "Monsoon Wedding" is truly sumptuous which, for a character driven family drama, is quite a feat. Nair's cinematographer (whose name I am of course to lazy to look up) does a truly wonderful job of framing shots and brings the sumptuous colors of Nair's film to life.
Despite all its strong points, "Monsoon Wedding" ultimately suffers the same fate as most others feature length films which try to incoroporate a large number of characters, namely that most characters remain semi-three dimensional and several plotlines are wrapped up quickly or not at all. The film's final scenes are particularly disappointing in this regard as several storylines which had until then developed at a leisurely pace are quickly tied up, not always in a believable manner. I have always believed that the time and the place to introduce more than 10 "main characters" in a movie is never since there is just no way you can properly develop so many characters in the span of 90-120 minutes. Such ambitions are usually best left for television, in my (admittedly amateur) opinion.