The Watercooler: Public Enemies
There are too many things that Public Enemies does well for it to be considered a failure, but it gets LiC’s vote for the biggest disappointment of the first half of 2009. There are many movies that are much worse, but none of them put so much great raw material (milieu, cast, technical command) to the service of so little. It’s a blank slate that Mann aficionados will be quick to fill with significance, but I’m not buying it. Don’t even get me started on comparisons to other, better films about legendary depression-era outlaws.
From period costumes to digital cinematography, the movie looks great. I’ve been hesitant about digital photography, but I’m increasingly convinced. It adds a refreshing rawness and immediacy to some scenes, but in others it still feels like bad TV. I know it’s probably psychological, but there were moments during the Wisconsin cabin shootout that reminded me of a cheesy America’s Most Wanted reenactment.
Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard are convincing as the two leads. Depp’s performance is minimalist, but there’s a cruelty beneath the surface I haven’t seen in him before. Cotillard is the perfect mixture of soft and hard – the kind of tough girl who can also completely fall for the right man. I actually wish we got to spend more time with them, but instead we get an endless string of characters, events and ideas, none of which are ever satisfactorily developed. Dillinger remains a cipher and the root of our fascination with the real man remains unexplored.
That’s all from me on this quiet holiday weekend. How about you? Did anyone else catch The Hurt Locker yet?
Filed under: Watercooler
Tags: Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, Michael Mann, Public Enemies
I’m hearing so many different things about Public Enemies, but I am seeing it tomorrow and I’m still so excited.
My holiday weekend was spent in the city, so no films for me lately.
Totally agree on Public Enemies. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been great. They just forgot to tell a story. You know, what with characters you care about and all. The film looked beautiful and the costumes and production design ought to be a strong favorite for an Oscar nom, but I had nothing invested in any of the characters, even Depp and Cotillard. My favorite character by far was Stephen Lang’s Texas lawman, but he had criminally little to do. There were some great sequences in the film, though, like a couple of jailbreaks and robberies. Overall, utterly forgettable. I didn’t go into the film knowing very much about Dillinger, and I left knowing essentially nothing more.
I watched The Last Picture Show for the first time, and it was fabulous. Great stuff. I want to watch it again already.
Also watched The Masque of the Red Death, which was fun for what it was. Had more movies planned, but life intervened. Friggin’ life.
hmm i was thinking about seeing the pe/uh hmm but i really want to avoid more disappoint tieing in with 2009 movies for just a little bit.
oh well i wasnm’t rally enthused about this anyway.and what does your novice care about ‘period’ movies anyway.
who knows maybe i’ll give in and give this try.but really i’ve had enough ‘oh no’s’ in 2009.
Have you seen any new movies you liked yet, glim?
I get the feeling “Public Enemies” is that divisive movie of the year, like “Che” last year, or “Jesse James” the year before that.
I don’t think the film is really interested in the question: “who was John Dillinger?”. In fact, the film sort of brushes away that concept very early on with Depp’s line to Cotillard, “My mom died when I was young, my father beat me because he didn’t know what else to do; I like movies, fast cars, and you. What else do you need to know?”
I think “Public Enemies” is about the same thing a lot of Michael Mann films are about, like “Heat” and “Collateral”, which is showing and experiencing dangerous, life-threatening situations through the viewpoint of someone who constantly lives with that “in the moment” mentality, like the De Niro and Cruise characters in those movies. That’s probably what interested him about Dillinger, but unlike those fictional characters, this was actually a real guy. I think it’s traditional Michael Mann with a real historical setting.
That said, I still disagree that there’s no emotional edge to the film, because I found the last act to be surprisingly compelling in that regard.
But yeah, this one will inspire much debate and discussion, I think.
I didn’t see Public Enemies – I’m one of the few people in the world who had absolutely no interest in it, but I appreciate your write-up. I’ve been following reactions to the film and I get the sense that for you and many others the movie wasn’t terrible but given the pedigree (I mean, you had the best of the best in casting, etc.) it should have been so much better. jennybee is correct about this probably garnering tech/art Oscar nominations, and given the weighted voting system this may even slip in for BP if there’s enough of a segment that loved it (especially with 10 slots now).
Since I was sick all weekend I stayed in. On Friday I watched The Earrings of Madame De… on DVD. My Mom never saw it so I introduced her to this fabulous movie (and she is eternally grateful). Other than that no movies. I started to watch Casino Royale last night but was too sick to sit through it. :(
Right now I’m watching To Catch a Thief on TCM. So much to love about this movie. :D
Sorry you’re sick, Alison! No good. But if you have to be sick, I can’t think of a better film to watch than The Earrings of Madam de… I’ve thought of that one every few days at least since I watched it a few weeks ago. An utter delight.
I love how you’re always watching TCM. You’re one of the few people I know who really seems to take advantage of that channel regularly. We’ve been doing better since we finally got a DVR, but it’s hard to keep up.
The last act of Public Enemies was the most emotional, Ari, and rightfully so, but it could have been a powerhouse of a final act instead of a slight crescendo. I like your points about what Mann’s about here, but I still got the idea that this was one of those films where the filmmakers are so close to their characters and the relationships of who’s who and what they’re about that they forget the audience isn’t. I don’t think a film has to take each character by the hand and introduce them to me with a full backstory, but this one was too many empty suits and action beats and not enough soul.
Michael Mann is great at making slick movies; I’m not convinced he’s so slick at making great ones.
Ah, bummer Craig. I really dug the film and I’m not even a big Mann fan (by any stretch). The performances kept me interested and some of the action sequences (for lack of a better word) were simply enthralling.
hey jenny ! :)
what i mean there’s been some ok stuff.and some stuff i afterwards but into the ok category/so i wouldn’t put a gun to my head. and some stuff i…appreciated…
but nothing this year has me enthused.and yeah i’m the one that liked ‘away we go’/57% at metacritic can’t be wrong. ha ha
K you should most definitely catch it if you’re excited about it. You might just fall for it.
I should rewind a teeny bit and say that the post above is probably a bit more negative than I really feel about the film. There was a LOT to like about this movie and DP identifies some of it. The action scenes were great, I especially liked the jail break where they stole Lily Taylor’s car.
Am I the only one who hated the final scene though?
You’re right Ari in that I think Mann was just using Dillinger as a springboard for something else, but I didn’t find that something else all that interesting.
It’s interesting you bring up Che because I struggled with that film in similar ways though my reaction was ultimately more favorable.
On a Mann scale, I’d put PE somewhere between Heat on the high end and Miami Vice on the low end. It’s much closer to Heat than MV, but it just didn’t grab me.
Alison, I love how you always manage to catch a DVD or TCM or something even when you’re unable to make it to a theater and it’s always something interesting.
“Michael Mann is great at making slick movies; I’m not convinced he’s so slick at making great ones.” oooh, JB throws down the Michael Mann gauntlet!
Thumbs up on The Last Picture Show. What a great movie.
You should give PE a shot glimmer. You just might see something in it I didn’t.
““Michael Mann is great at making slick movies; I’m not convinced he’s so slick at making great ones.”
Yeeeeouch. You know, even though I disagree, that made me laugh out loud. I’ve learned not to mess with sam juliano and now jennybee. They will layeth the smackdown.
Hope you feel better Alison.
I had a sizzling week myself, beginning with an engaging if uneven stage version of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street, which I attended with Lucille, Broadway Bob and my two daughters. (the boys stayed home). I hope to get a review out within a few days.
I saw four films in movie theatres:
Public Enemies *** (Friday night; Edgewater multiplex)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ** (Friday night; Edgewater multiplex)
Lion’s Den **** (Saturday night; IFC Film Center-Manhattan)
Dead Snow ** (Sunday night; Cinema Village-Manhattan)
I was disappointed by the Johnny Depp/Christian Bale starrer, as it was mostly style over substance, a recent trademark of Michael Mann, who did manage to provide stellar period detail for the Depression-era saga about gangster John Dillinger. I did not appreciate the digital video filmmaking method, but again a review may be forthcoming.
The newest Ice Age sequel was a listless affair with inane humor, unappealing characters and pedestrian animation. On the other hand, the best film I saw this week was the Argentinian woman’s prison drama which was raw and compelling with some acute psychological insights and a buffo lead performance. The final film, which I recently returned from was reportedly a hit at Sundance, but it was an over-the-top zombie gorefest from Norway with redundant humor and endless decapitations, chainsaw mutilations and skull smashing. It did admittedly have a few funny lines though. Would love to know what Jeff think of it.
Sorry to hear you’re sick, Alison. I hope you get better quick. Earrings of Madame De…sounds like a good balm for what ails though.
I still plan on seeing Public Enemies but I get the impression the comments and the review are a bit spoilery so I’m going to avoid them all.
My Two Cents: As for Mann, I think a bit part of his appeal to critics and cinephiles in general (at least the ones who think he’s a genius) is that he’s applying art-film aesthetics to genre pictures and getting away with it in Hollywood. I’d agree that they aren’t all successful but he has a very specific style and point-of-view, that’s for sure, and his style doesn’t overwhelm the storytelling like most of his contemporaries. I’d rather watch five unsuccessful movies from Michael Mann than see one more movie from Tony or Ridley Scott.
This weekend my brother was in town visiting, so we were busy enjoying his company and entertaining him but after he left Sunday I relaxed with some movies.
Tokyo! is a much better omnibus picture than Cannes gave it credit for. Michel Gondry and Bong Joon-Ho offer the most satisfying entries, both of which I thought were excellent, but Leo Carax’s bizarre and unsettling Merde is probably the one that will stick with you longest, if only because it will leave you scratching your head at the craziness of it all. Toyko! is definitely recommended.
Moon has many of the aspects of a film I should love: great acting, great cinematography, an engrossing premise, great special effects, and an adult take on an overworked genre. But Moon was only somewhat satisfying. I think I was left wanting by the script, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth recommending anyway for all the other elements.
And then there was Tetro and if I had only gotten to see one film this weekend, I would have been fine with it being Tetro. Not exactly perfect, but still a very rewarding big screen confection. Coppola proves that he still has an eye for amazing compositions and a taste for operatic drama. Other than a weak lead performance, I really enjoyed Tetro quite a bit.
Both Jenny’s viewing of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and Alison’s of THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE……….well………..nirvana incarnate. The former is my favorite film of the 1970’s in any language and the latter is one of the crowning jewels of world cinema.
I liked the new Mann film a lot . . . and yes, Craig, including the last scene. I thought the scenes of Dillinger watching the film intercut with the Fibbies’ preparations built the tension very well, and the enigmatic response of Depp to the meller on the screen provided real emotional meat.
“…the latter is one of the crowning jewels of world cinema.”
Exactly.
And thanks to everyone for the well-wishes. I think the antibiotics are kicking in. :)
Glad to know which side of the divide you fall on Rick even though I can’t reach you from where I’m sitting.
Again though I’m sounding overly negative. PE is ok, but it was a far cry from what my early hopes for it were.
I think Joel sums up Mann pretty well, and I’d also rather watch Mann than Scott since the ’80s, but for me the aesthetic never came to life except in moments.
Sam, glad to hear you’re back in the business of going to the movies and it looks like you got off to a bang. I will keep an eye out for Lions Den when it hits LA.
Thanks for the heads up on Tokyo! Joel. I kind of let the buzz sway me away from it, plus it came out at a bad time so I never caught it. I’ll have to fix that now.
Ha Craig! Well my average is three or four films theatrically per week in addition to the music and theatre concerns. Anymore than that and I would surely be served walking papers in this house! LOL!
You manage more than I do Sam, and I don’t have a family to tend to.
Though I know you work around that by including the family in your movie going.
Not that it matters because there was never a chance in hell that I’d see it, but how would you compare the latest Ice Age to the others? Same? Worse?
Craig, your annual moviegoing must come in around 150 films. Nobody can touch that.
The latest Ice Age film is the worst of the lot, with the original being the best. They’ve simply run out of ideas. Even the kids were bored, which tel,ls you something! LOL!
According to Jeff Wells, maybe Craig is just too into Mickey D’s and not these Mann-sized chunks o’ reel meat…
I’m a vegetarian myself.
Who’s Jeff Wells? Is he the guy with the daily Michael Jackson posts?
PE is better than a Big Mac, but it isn’t filet mignon either.
lol Alison.
Just got back from Public Enemies… not entirely sure how I feel about it just yet.
Can you give us a clue which way you’re leaning?
Craig, I basically agree with you on PE. I liked sporadic chunks of it, especially the ending, but imagine how much more powerful it could have been if the first 4/5 of the movie had been more compelling. The middle third was snooze-inducing for me. But I liked Depp and Cotillard and Lang and the production design and cinematography and music and all that, so not too bad.
At the moment? I’m leaning in the positive direction, but I’m actually pretty neutral. I think I need a bit more time to take it all in, though. I don’t quite know how to express my thoughts on it right now.
Isn’t it odd Jeff to say “I like this and this and this and this and this…but overall, the movie didn’t quite do it for me” ? That’s kind of how I feel. Individual elements are great and I was mostly un-bored until about 90 minutes in, then I started checking my watch.
K. I know how you feel. I’m kind of relieved though you’re leaning positive. Why do I care at all? Well, you were excited about it and it would’ve been kind of a bummer if you were disappointed.
I enjoyed the film, definitely. I didn’t love it the way I hoped I would, but I don’t feel disappointed at all.
Craig, what you and Jeff describe about PE is my general takeaway from Moon. So many aspects to like but the whole was a disappointment.
Craig, I think it all comes down to story. And for me, PE’s story was only running on half-power while all the other aspects (cinematography, performances, production design etc) were at full steam.
K. Maybe if you sit with it a while, you’ll regain your enthusiasm. Sometimes when I’m so deeply jazzed about a movie, it can’t possibly live up to my expectations, but then when I revisit it knowing what’s coming It goes down more satisfyingly.
Joel. I think we’re largely on the same page with Moon even if I’m treating it more favorably. For me the kick was Sam Rockwell essentially playing ***spoiler*** two completely different yet related roles ***end spoiler*** The guy is just amazing and I’m finding myself loving everything he’s in. Even the much-disliked Choke (which I know you were not a fan of).
Moon kind of shoots itself in the foot for cribbing from some of the biggest, deepest sci-fi out there…or maybe it’s fanboy reviewers’ faults for overstating the case in the first place.
Nevertheless, I look forward to Mr. Jones’ next project.
Jeff, yeah it was the story for me too even though I understand that kind of misses the point of the movie. I can work without a strong story (though summer was the wrong time to appreciate a movie like this I think) if I have something else to hang my hat on…an idea, an emotion…something, but I just couldn’t find it with PE.
***MOON SPOILERS BELOW***
Craig, I didn’t really have so much of an issue with the main plot line until the resolution, but I was annoyed by the whole corporate conspiracy subplot that is ultimately very poorly resolved. The (somewhat) happy ending is rendered false by this narrative copout, because the film escapes this subplot and also jettisons the interesting questions that are raised (and then not addressed) regarding Sam’s existential dilemma.
The whole corporate conspiracy angle opens massive holes in the entire second half of the movie, because if the corporation has such sinister intents they would not leave their ridiculously expensive investment so vulnerable to a rogue employee sabotaging it left and right. At the very least, Gerty would have some simple programming to thwart Sam’s efforts late in the final act.
That was what I was disappointed by, even though I thought Rockwell’s performance and virtually everything else about the movie was excellent. I wanted to like the plot and narrative, but the further I get from it the less I like it.
***END SPOILERS***
***SPOILER*** I’d have to go back and watch it again, but I think the corporate conspiracy angle was entirely of Sam #1’s paranoid manufacture. Yes, the company made clones to do tedious, lonely and dangerous jobs, but it’s really only a dark conspiracy to the clones themselves. ****END SPOILER***
I could be missing your point or just plain wrong, but I didn’t come away from the movie with a feeling of plot holes, just one of a missed opportunity.
I wanted to discuss PE and could have done so much earlier. We saw it on Thursday night.
But I wanted to wait until my review was up.
Truthfully, Craig, when you came back from that test screening months ago with a less than positive response, I couldn’t help but think that that was a bad sign.
What you wrote in your post mirrors my thoughts, which are virtually identical. Everyone that’s kind of alluding to a mixed bag where you had an affinity for some stuff and not other aspects, I’m firmly on board with that as well.
I’ve never been a Mann devotee. Though I liked THE INSIDER, ALI and MANHUNTER well enough (and thought that COLLATERAL LOOKED spectacular), he’s generally not my cup of java and his films always seem to be an uphill battle for me.
I thought the HD was a huge mistake. Didn’t ruin it totallly for me. But it did take me out of the picture whenever I thought about it (which was often). Grainy, shaky cam, couldn’t distinguish the dark colours at night (since they all bleed together) and the daylight colours seemed picture postcard fake.
Mr. Bale tried desperately to break out with an underwritten role. He does everything he can to no avail.
Billy Crudup is an awesome actor. He was completely unrecognizable (which is fine) but he had the most bizarre accent I’ve ever heard. Since when does J. Edgar Hoover sound like a British bon vivant??? What is this? Vaudeville?
The production values were top notch: clothes, cars, Art Deco settings. The old music on the soundtrack (BILLIE HOLLIDAY) was superb.
But I found it mostly hollow, empty and SLOW. It dragged like hell. Those trailers were so beautifully done and I was afraid they wouldn’t be representative.
Yeah…
Only things I really dug were Johnny and Marion. Both so gorgeous and charismatic. Excellent chemistry too. Totally believable. If it hadn’t been for them it would’ve been a total washout.
They were the principal things that kept me awake.
No problem.You pays your money. You takes your chances…
***MOON SPOILERS***
Craig: RE MOON. Well, OK, I guess you can see it that way but there’s nothing to indicate that is what has actually happened. Further, when the “rescue team” shows up and finds Sam 1 dead in the moon buggy, the guy who discovers him appears to be heavily armed. Obviously, that moment couldn’t have been imagined by Sam 1 because he’s dead, so it validates the conspiracy. Why send heavily-armed workers on a “rescue” mission unless you had something to hide/protect/cover-up? Or did I get that whole scene wrong?
***END SPOILERS***
R.I.P. in our hearts forever. We love you Michael.
As The Watercooler since its inception was conceived as a free-for-all blog by its illustrious founder, I will now mention that todays’s memorial for Michael Jackson (and yes I am proud to say his name here, and he will lived on in our memory forever) was as emotionally wrenching as I thought it would be. As LIC deeply laments his loss, I want to again stress how so many of us have had a part of us ripped out by his untimely passing, and that one can never overestimate what he meant to the music world.
R.I.P. in our hearts forever. We love you Michael.
I know this whole thing has hit you and Lucille pretty hard Sam and I just hope that today’s memorial is the beginning of you bouncing back. Be joyful that you’ll have his music to enjoy forever.
Miranda, what I saw over the weekend felt like an improvement over what I saw in February, but I don’t have any specific changes I can identify. Still, we agree on the hollowness and the greatness that was Depp and Cotillard. Someone said they thought the movie came to a screeching halt when they were together on screen, but I had the opposite reaction. The action/suspense segments were great, but the movie threatened to actually come to life when sparks were flying between John and Billie.
I was ok with the digital, though I really do miss how film looks, especially period films. I know that was the whole point of doing digital, but I’m still not used to it.
Ah well, they can’t all be winners as they say.
Joel. I’ll allow that there are just some things I’m fuzzy on with Moon. You having seen it fresh have a better grasp of exactly how it all went down. I guess I just feel like the corporate conspiracy element was a bit of a red herring. In another movie it could’ve been the whole point of the movie, but here it was context.
I don’t know how well it would have worked, but watching the film there was a real part of me that wanted to see Public Enemies in black and white.
I don’t know how well it would have worked, but watching the film there was a real part of me that wanted to see Public Enemies in black and white.”
For me, it very nearly was in black and white, k. I’ll copy-n-paste what I wrote on AwardsDaily: “Far from looking too modern to me, at times the low-light night scenes leeched the color just enough to create a pastel grayscale palette approximating delicately tinted black and white.”
(which is a lot like what Miranda said about “couldn’t distinguish the dark colours at night” — except for me it was beautiful.)
In a movie about light and darkness, it did have the effect of making the scenes of daylight escape all the more vividly alive with dreamlike gem tones of hyper-real widescreen freedom. And then became appropriately visually claustrophobic at night, with sparse pools of light focusing our attention on illicit pleasures — the amber glow of a shot glass of whiskey, the lips of a coat-check girl.
At times the color scheme was almost expressionistic — that red traffic light and it’s reflection on the brick pavers in the getaway scene, holding our breath at the intersection, reminded me very much of the red dress jolting us out of the grayness in Schindler’s List.
(as for J. Edgar Hoover’s voice, he was prone to bloviating like a big-blouse girl in plummy tones of queenly pretension.)
Ryan, I think the above might be my favorite sentence of the day.
;-)
Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate nobody saying, “It takes a plummy bloviator to know one.”
Ryan, I am totally in awe of your superb writing talent and your finely tuned artistic sensibilities.
And NO, I’m not just saying that because we’re friends that go back a fair bit. Ha ha.
I have a healthy respect for MOST peoples’ opinions. If I don’t, there is always a damn good reason for it.
I’m genuinely thrilled if anyone got more out of PE than I did. Dorothy definitely did. So did you.
But you can’t choose your viewpoints when it comes to art. Things influence you and are major touchstones in your life, you feel indifferent about them OR you positively loathe them.
There’s no rhyme or reason to it. You only know if it gets to you…and that’s impossible to fake.
Personally, I think it’s fascinating that we all experience film the same way, through watching and observing – and we all come away with various impressions. We actually see with different pairs of eyes. It’s entirely subjective.
k made a brilliant suggestion. If PE had been filmed in B&W, would it have saved it for me? Maybe not. But it would have made more sense and been truer to the material IMO. Plus many of my favourite films over the years have shot that way (both classic and modern).
Listening seems to be a fairly individual proposition as well. I strongly suspect that Billy Crudup’s performance would have struck me as broad and overly showy regardless.
My hearing capabilities are decent. I worked in broadcasting for a short time straight out of high school . Plus I have a real facility with accents.
I had watched some video of Hoover just before I started my review and thought that he sounded more Midwestern twangy than anything else.
A disparity (however slight) exists between what I heard and what you heard in exactly the same fashion that we both saw – literally and figuratively – different things in PE.
And that’s just fine…
It’s a funny principle because it just goes round and round.
Since I was a teenager, people (mostly men) have told me that my voice was similar to Kathleen Turner’s. I think they’re right. We do sound very much alike. I’ll buy that.
But one day – to my great surprise – I almost had a confrontation with a stranger who had engaged me in casual conversation.
I have no accent whatsoever and I was born stateside. But at one point this young woman (who was from Hong Kong) asked me what part of England I was from. When I told her that I wasn’t a Brit, she accused me of lying to her.
WTF???
There are a lot of people from the UK in my home town. I’ve dated English guys and generally have had quite a number of Brits in my off line social circle. Do I sound like any of them?
HELL NO. But that’s what she heard.
It all comes back to the same thing inevitably. Art will have its way with us – whether we like it or not.
I’m glad you enjoyed PE, Ryan.
See what happens when the WC is on Sunday? I end up days behind! Ah well, I wasn’t back until Tues. morning anyway so I missed the meat of the conversation.
Don’t have time to fully catch up with everything, though I did see Public Enemies and was heartened by both Craig’s “AMW” analogy and Miranda’s complaint about the digicam look. I was aching for a warm, mellow, crisp, clear, Benjamin Button-like tone over the whole thing. The video just made the night scenes look so amateurish to me, like somebody working on a short film with their buddies. Anyway, that (as well as Cotillard’s accent) were really the only two issues I had with it. I also liked Depp in a darker role without makeup.
Now’s as good as time as any to mention that I also got engaged over the weekend. Now to begin figuring out how Sam impossibly keeps up his habit with a wife and kids…
Congratulations Daniel!
Congrats Dan!
Well, I am at a loss to offer an explanation except to say I’m a juggler. You will find a way to make it all work out, I’m sure.
Congrats, Daniel. True love (Twu wuv) is a rare and precious thing, and always worth celebrating. When do we show up for the wedding? :)
Wow Daniel, I was going to comment on movies, but Wow. Congratulations!
The monkeys and I wish you both every happiness.
Thanks a lot, guys and gals. Could be a big change eventually, but we’ll take it a day at a time – we’ve been together almost five years so my movie obsession is no surprise. I just have to catch her up still on a lot of movies, and I’ll also have to work on my juggling for sure, Sam, though I think we’re going to wait on kids for a while anyway.
Maybe the monkeys can be our honorary ringbearers. We don’t know where we’re going be wed yet, or when. My family is here in MN, hers in Vegas. I think more people would show up for a wedding in Vegas, though they’ll be disappointed when it doesn’t turn out like The Hangover or What Happens in Vegas or every other wild and crazy Vegas movie. Man, that city really knows how to market itself through film. Unlike MN…
I’m late to the party but I wanted to throw in my congratulations as well!
Vegas = Gambling and Showgirls
Minnesota = Death by wood chipper
What Craig said.
Congrats, Danny!!!
That’s awesome. .
Congrats, Daniel!
In one of my numerous appearances as a Best Man I once participated in a Vegas wedding at the Monte Carlo casino. Amazing experience.
They actually queue you up ahead of time, prep you with a quick rehearsal, and have the whole thing timed down to the last second. On a busy day, they do a wedding every half-hour. 25 minutes for the entire ceremony (seating guests, walk down the aisle, vows, rings, and done) and 5 minutes to get you out of the room.
It was sort of surreal, but then everything about Vegas is sorta surreal.
“They actually queue you up ahead of time, prep you with a quick rehearsal, and have the whole thing timed down to the last second.”
And that’s just for the wedding night.
Congratz, Daniel!
Congratulations from me too, Daniel!
Before getting married I really didn’t think I could feel anymore committed and one with my wife than I did. Yet I can’t deny that the act of declaration has enhanced the quality of and deepened our sense of partnership. After 3 1/2 years of marriage I still get a thrill out of referring to the great love of my life as my wife. Don’t be surprised if you experience an extra injection of joy and partnership when taking the next step.
Better late than never: Congratulations, Daniel!!!!
Wow, my thanks again to everybody for the well wishes, anecdotes, and especially the encouragement from sartre! This has been a reminder that I need to tell the rest of my friends, too. Kind of one of those weird announcements where people are hurt if you don’t tell them right away. Bleh, social conventions…