A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride
A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride is a 2008 television film directed by Leslie Hope and starring Joanna García and Luke Perry. The film originally aired in Canada on December 15, 2008, and in the United States on December 20, 2008 on Lifetime.[1] The screenplay concerns wedding planner Roxanne (García), who tries to foil her mother's plans to marry a man she just met by sabotaging their Christmas wedding. But she soon finds herself falling in love just as quickly as her mother did.
| A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Comedy, Drama, Romance |
| Written by | Scott Eastlick Leslie Hope |
| Directed by | Leslie Hope |
| Starring | Joanna García Helen Shaver Luke Perry |
| Theme music composer | Zack Ryan |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Michael Frislev Chad Oakes |
| Cinematography | Adam Kane |
| Editor | Bridget Durnford |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | Lifetime (United States) |
| Original release |
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Plot
The movie starts off at a wedding where Roxanne (Joanna Garcia) and her mother Rose (Helen Shaver) are attending the wedding they planned for the bride, Tish (Chantal Perron). In a twist of events, the wedding goes South as Tish catches her fiancé cheating on her with another woman at their wedding. The three of them go on to enjoy the rest of the wedding since none of them wanted their handwork to go to waste. The wedding consultants allow Tish to crash at their place where she began working at their company until she was able to get back up on her feet. The bride had also mentioned that had this wedding gone through, this marriage would have been her attempt number five.
Following the wedding, Rose goes on a trip to France by herself for three days and leaves Roxanne to take care of the wedding business with the help of Tish. This proved to be a great challenge for Roxanne who was not used to working at the bridal store planning weddings and taking on clients without her mother. Roxanne had previously been engaged to her next door neighbors son Dylan (Lucas Bryant) until he abruptly left without saying goodbye and ended things six years ago. With a surprising visit from her ex fiancé, Dylan asks to catch up with Roxanne, but she refuses since her mother was due to arrive exactly the same day. Yet, on her way back from France, Roxanne gets a surprise when she meets her mother's new fiancé Jack. Rose had met Jack while in France and had known him for a couple of days. This to Roxanne was a complete shock and something she did not accept. Roxanne's excitement to her mother's arrival back from France turned sour as she met Jack.
Roxanne's father, and Rose's husband had past away a couple years prior and the two have stuck together ever since; the duo went the longest time without any men in their lives. Rose as a widowed 50 something year old never planned on getting remarried, and Roxanne had been searching for a man who she could spend her entire life with. She had not yet found this man to spend 'forever' with; her previous engagement deeply impacted her future relationships, which at that point was nonexistent. Roxanne's focus had been on her mother and their bridal business, and dating was not a priority.
Roxanne comes up with a plan to destroy her mother's marriage to Jack as she feared being lonely and having to depend on herself. Roxanne had become so accustomed to having her mother by her side whenever she needed her that her mother's marriage to Jack would put much constraint on their relationship. Rose and her fiancé had made plans to move to Seattle after their wedding since Jack lived there. Roxanne eventually becomes fed up with all the life changes Rose had planned to make with Jack, none of which included herself. As such, she comes up with a plan to sabotage her mother's marriage to Jack with the help of Jack' son Charlie (Luke Perry). Charlie had been from Jack's previous marriage, and Rose invited him to their house without telling Jack to prove her commitment to him. Charlie is portrayed as business savvy, as he took over his father's company and was focused on the money. Charlie is going through a divorce and is already worried enough about having to give up a large sum of his money to his ex-wife. Therefore, Charlie opposes this marriage as well since he did not want any of his father's inheritance to go to Roxanne's mother.
Thus, Roxanne and Charlie come up with a scheming plan to destroy their parents wedding. Roxanne asked Jack and Rose to put the wedding off for an extra ten days in order to plan the best wedding she could. Rose and Jack did not see the point of a wedding and instead wanted to go to the courthouse and make it official. With the help of Charlie, Roxanne manages to convince the couple to hold off the wedding so that she has enough time to make sure everything that can go wrong does. This first attempt was to make Charlie late to his own rehearsal dinner but things took a different turn. Charlie knew his father would not be able to resist a wine auction, and when he shows his father the flyer Jack quickly scurries off forgetting his phone in the bridal store. Jack ends up being late to the dinner, but with good reason. He had went to the wine auction to find the wine that Rose and himself had dined on in Paris. Successful as he is, Jack buys the entire case and brings it to Rose. Rose in complete awe, Roxanne and Jack not so much as their plan had failed. To further their unsuccessful attempt, Jack gets a call on his phone when everyone realizes that the phone was in the purse of Roxanne. In order to make things right, Roxanne ends up calling this plan off when she realizes that Jack is a good guy who truly loves her mothers; the case of wine was an exemplar of this. With her mind changed, Roxanne now realizes she wants to actually plan the perfect wedding for her mother instead of the disastrous one she had originally pursued. Charlie, on the other hand had not changed his mind and still wanted things to be called off. As such, he does not see things the same way and decides to go ahead with his plans to open up a bridal store, CJB, that would put Roxane and Rose's company out of business. Roxanne figured this out when she took Dylan with her to spy on him in a suspicious location with another woman as they were making the arrangements.
With information on the plans Jack had arranged, Roxanne goes with the news to her mother. Once Rose is informed, she calls off the wedding to Jack who had no previous knowledge of the bridal store Charlie had planned to open. Rose had worked extremely hard to get her little store to get at where it is today, and she was not about to let a man take that away from her. Roxanne speaks to Jack and learns he had no knowledge of the opening of the bridal store right down the street from where Roxanne and Rose's was. As such, she is convinced and finds Jack to be truthful. Once again Roxanne comes up with another plan to get Jack and Rose back together. On Christmas Day, Roxanne forces her mother to come with her to the Christmas show in which she went unwillingly. Her mother had locked herself in the house ever since she left Jack and was not feeling the Christmas spirit so to speak.
Jack shows up at the same place with a horse carriage to sweep Rose off her feet and prove his innocence. With the help of Roxanne, Jack is able to convince Rose and she accepts his wedding proposal for a second time. While it was all good news for the trio, Charlie did not feel the same way since he was unsuccessful in his attempt. Jack promised to make sure no other bridal store was to open, ensuring the original one would not go out of business. While Roxanne had been so busy first trying to ruin and then trying to fix her mother's love life, she completely ignores who was standing right in front of her the whole time. Throughout the entire film, Dylan had been constantly available to offer help whenever he proved to be useful in order to win back his ex fiancé. Dylan remained with Roxanne and her mother up until the true wedding where he decided he was to yet again travel the world in order to take pictures. While Roxanne and Dylan had not gotten back together, it opened up old wounds.
The final scene of the film takes place at Jack and Rose's wedding. After everything the couple goes through to get to this point, they were finally able to pronounce themselves as husband and wife. After Dylan cancels his trip, Roxanne also got a surprise of her own when Dylan shows up to her mother's wedding. He proceeds to ask her for a dance, and Dylan proposes to Roxanne, as he proves to her his commitment. The film ends with Roxanne' s acceptance to Dylan's proposal.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Luke Perry | Charlie |
| Joanna Garcia | Roxanne |
| Helen Shaver | Rose |
| Kenneth Welsh | Jack |
| Lucas Bryant | Dylan |
| Chantel Perron | Tish |
| Lorette Clow | Liz Sandor |
Setting
The film takes place during the holiday season around the time of Christmas. This specific holiday had been very important for Roxanne as she spent it with her mother, yet Rose and Jack planned to get married on the same day. Roxanne while she disapproved of her mothers wedding to Jack, was furthered in sabotaging their wedding when she realizes that her mother was not only marrying a stranger but during a time where family was seen as sacred and meant to celebrate together. Hence, this does not include bringing strangers over for Christmas just as Rose had done on her way back from France. While it is not specified where the film takes place, Roxanne and Rose lived in a smaller city in the United States of America.
Production
A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride was filmed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The total production cost of the film is estimated at 1,300,000 CDN.[2] While being filmed in Calgary, Perry was interviewed by the Ottawa Citizen and stated "For Perry, a one-time starving actor who supported himself by laying asphalt and working in a doorknob factory, there was just no room for ego."[3]
References
- "A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride". mylifetime.com. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
- "A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride". IMDb. December 20, 2008.
- Lewis, Nick (January 2008). "Luke Perry has little patience for big egos; Try not to 'behave like idiots,' he cautions troubled young celebs".
External links
- A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride at IMDb
- A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride at Rotten Tomatoes