A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother's wife who comes from outside the community.A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother's wife who comes from outside the community.A young Hutterite boy must marry his late brother's wife who comes from outside the community.
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"Holy Matrimony" is a moralist but cute comedy. Watching this 1994 film in 2016, it is funny to see the boy Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The twenty-six year-old Patricia Arquette is in the top of her beauty. Another attraction is the director Leonard "Mr. Spock" in his last work as a film director. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Santo Matrimônio" ("Holy Matrimony")
This is an enjoyable comedy with good feeling, entertaining, agreeable humor and language is suitable for all. The main issue about this movie is from how she tries to adapt the new life whilst keeping up the presence of being a good woman . It's enough remarkable in portraying the Hutterite way of life sympathetically and the likable relationship of the juvenile marriage. It's understandable why it was not great success in the theatre, as it has not spectacular special effects , isn't a blockbuster , but for the television set , its's just what is required. The film takes parts here and there from ¨Witness¨(Peter Weir with Harrison Ford) and ¨For richer and poorer¨(Bryan Spicer with Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley). Colorful cinematography by Bukowski and emotive musical score by Bruce Broughton. The motion picture is professionally directed by the famous Leonard Nimoy, Spock . He's a good director of comedy-drama(Good mother, Funny about love, 3 men and a baby), Sci-Fi(Star Trek III and V) and occasionally for television(Deadly games,Night gallery, T.J. Hooker). Rating : Average but bemusing.
What could be better than a comedy set in an Amish-style community starring Patricia Arquette and directed by Spock? Well - quite a lot actually. The plot is pretty thin and all the "comedy" revolves around the mis-match of the boy and his adult wife. This gets very thin very quickly, leaving only the "thriller" plot of the dirty FBI agent hunting the money himself (John Schuck). Unfortunately the thriller element doesn't work either.
Patricia Arquette is poor in the lead role playing a very unsympathetic character that flicks between two emotions - angry and repentant. Gordon-Levitt is good as Ezekiel and has some of the few funny moments in the film. However he is hampered by the poor material he has to work with. Support from Donovan and Schuck is as poor as you'd expect.
It's not a terrible film but it's just all so lame. There's nothing to really make you feel strongly either way and to me that's worse than a film that's laughably bad. The whole project is pointless.
Did you know
- TriviaLeonard Nimoy's final film as a director.
- GoofsAt the hotel, Zeke is told to get a room key. As he tries various doors, we see that they are operated by key cards. When his wife meets him in the lobby, she hands him the room key which is metal and dangling from a keychain, although there would have been no way he could have used that to open the room door.
- Quotes
Havana: What are you going to say when we get to the border?
Ezekiel: We're going to return stolen money.
Havana: Oh, that's a great answer...
Ezekiel: Thank you. I thought so, too.
Havana: It's a great answer if you wanna go to jail.
Ezekiel: What?
Havana: If you say that, they're gonna think you were in on the robbery. They'll put you in jail. And the first thing they're gonna do is burn your little hat. Then the second thing they're gonna do is take away your bible. Then the third thing... is the worst thing.
Ezekiel: What?
Havana: Rats! Rats in your face! Rats all night long! Back and forth. They seem to like faces more than anything. They're bred that way. They're called face rats!
Ezekiel: [scared] Face rats?
Havana: So we're gonna have to lie a little.
Ezekiel: Oh, I don't like to lie.
Havana: You like your face to be eaten by rats?
Ezekiel: Okay, what do I have to say?
Havana: Repeat after me: we are going to visit family in Montana for the day.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Minty Comedic Arts: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Rock (2023)
- How long is Holy Matrimony?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $713,234
- Gross worldwide
- $713,234
- Runtime1 hour 33 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1