Film review: Confetti (2006), directed by Debbie Isitt
In this mockumentary bridal magazine Confetti want something new to interest their readers, and come up with a competition. Three couples battle it out to have the most original wedding. The winning couple get to be on the front cover as well as getting their hands on a house worth £500k.
The magazine’s editor Vivien (Felicity Montagu) leaves it in the hands of Antoni (Jimmy Carr) to hold auditions. Loads of couples apply, of course, but nothing really stands out. As they do need a few couples for this, they pick three:
Lovebirds Matt (Martin Freeman) and Sam (Jessica Hynes/Stevenson), who want a wedding like a 1940s musical; competitive tennis players Josef (Stephen Mangan) and Isabelle (Meredith MacNeill) want a tennis themed wedding; and naturists Michael (Robert Webb) and Joanna (Olivia Colman) who want to have a wedding in the nude.
To their aid they have wedding planners Archie (Vincent Franklin) and Gregory (Jason Watkins) and about three months in which to plan and rehearse the perfect wedding.
Also starring Alison Steadman as Sam’s mum, Marc Wootton as Snoopy, Sarah Hadland as Jen, and Mark Heap as the Registrar.
It’s like an A-Z of British comedy actors, and they all do a great job. Actually, I recognised most of them, even if I didn’t know the name of all of them.
Confetti is a mockumentary, a mock (fake) documentary, so you definitely feel the cameras there and the actors are interviewed on camera as well. It’s very well done.
As for the couples themselves, the tennis players want to win no matter what – and they’re the ones most likely to get a divorce within the year, let’s face it. The naturists struggle with the magazine because they want to be nude, and the magazine can’t possibly have naked people on the cover. By the way, if you ever wanted to see Robert Webb’s scrotum or Olivia Colman’s breasts, you get to see those. A lot.
The musical couple struggle with Sam’s controlling mother and sister. The sister wants to do the choreography, and as she’s a dancer on a cruiseliner she’s of course far more qualified than the professional choreographer the magazine have organised, and so on.
Planning a wedding can be stressful at the best of times, but when there’s a magazine deciding how your special day is going to be there are bound to be disagreements along the way.
As for the weddings, the naturist one was the most heartfelt. The tennis one was definitely quirky and fun in its own way, but lacked, well, heart. The one that actually brought tears to my eyes was the musical wedding. It was really beautiful and terribly romantic.
Who won?
Watch And Find Out.
4 out of 5 wedding parties.
