Sundance Review: ‘The Wedding Banquet’ is a Fun, Heartfelt Update on a Layered Romantic Comedy

Getting married and starting a family isn’t all that easy for some people. Laws and family expectations can prevent those who don’t conform to societal norms from moving ahead with unions that express the feelings they have for other people, and non-heterosexual couples face added burdens to having children because it requires both money and medical assistance. Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet begins with two couples experiencing both of those issues and the wild plan they come up with to try to achieve happiness for all of them.

Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone) are trying to get pregnant, but Lee is going through her second round of IVF and knows that, if it also doesn’t take, they can’t afford a third try. Angela’s best friend Chris (Bowen Yang) is shocked by a proposal from his boyfriend Min (Han Gi-chan), which he believes is motivated by Min’s desire to get a green card and not have to go into the family business. Lee and Min come up with an idea that may be able to solve all their problems: have Min marry Angela for the green card, and he’ll pay for their IVF. Their hair-brained scheme quickly goes awry when Min’s intimidating grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) arrives from Korea to meet his new bride.

This film, which comes from Ahn, whose past features are Spa Night, Driveways, and Fire Island, is a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 film of the same name. It benefits greatly from the participation of James Schamus, a screenwriter of the original, in collaboration with Ahn on this new and updated script. While that film was groundbreaking in its own way, this film is notable for its positive if quite entertaining depiction of two gay couples and just how much of themselves they have to try and hide when they frantically rush around the house to make it seem less gay for Min’s grandmother’s arrival. It’s a celebration of sexual diversity that makes fun of its characters plenty but never questions or challenges their existence.

This film also gets off to a hilarious start with a ceremony featuring an ally award bestowed on Angela’s mother May (Joan Chen). While Lee is the one who runs a queer organization, Angela is also publicly out, but it’s her mother who has all the pride. The support she’s shown her daughter from the very beginning is overbearing, and it’s a tremendous overcompensation that represents a different kind of suffocating mother. Especially as portrayed by the wonderfully talented Chen, fresh off playing a much gentler parent in Dìdi, it’s an extremely funny look at modern family relationships that overcorrect for the kind of unspoken discomfort exhibited in families like Min’s.

This film features a fun cast that makes the often over-the-top experience all the more worthwhile. Yang is more grounded than usual, and it’s interesting to see him portray someone who doesn’t think he’s a great person, repeatedly referencing that his caution about marrying Min means that he shouldn’t wait for him, and is concerned that he wouldn’t make a good father. Tran is hilariously self-deprecating and unmotivated, the least willing participant in these hijinks. Gladstone is less serious than usual in the best way, even if Lee is the most levelheaded of the group. Gi-chan, in his first English-language role, is a delight, and the wonderful Chen and Oscar-winning Youn add welcome generational sensibilities.

The Wedding Banquet is hardly the most dramatic or enduring film about recognizing identities and staying true to who you are, but it’s not meant to be. There’s a surprising amount of tender drama folded in to the sometimes slapstick comedy, and this film is at its best when its characters stop to actually talk about their relationships and what they want. A larger-than-life situation is the perfect chance for them to realize what’s really important, and this film is able to do that in a heartwarming way in between all its very funny antics.

Movie Rating: 8/10