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'Ceremony' review

Wes Anderson wannabe ultimately finds its own voice

By Geoff Berkshire

Metromix
April 7, 2011

Critic's Rating:

Uma Thurman and Michael Angarano (Credit: Magnolia)

Michael Angarano as Sam Davis in ``Ceremony.''

Lee Pace as Whit Coutell in ``Ceremony.''

Uma Thurman as Zoe and Lee Pace as Whit Coutell in ``Ceremony.''

Ceremony

Running time:: 90 minutes

Rated:: R

Cast:

Michael Angarano -

Sam Davis

Uma Thurman -

Zoe

Lee Pace -

Whit Coutell

Reece Thompson -

Marshall Schmidt

Jake Johnson -

Teddy

See full cast

Director:: Max Winkler

Genre:: Comedy

Official Movie Web Site:: http://www.ceremonyfilm.com/

Overall User Rating:: (0 ratings)

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["Ceremony" premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. The following is an excerpt from Metromix's coverage of the festival.]

"Ceremony" starts by presenting seemingly one-note characters and gradually attempts to peel back their layers. They're the fast-talking literary types you'd expect to find in a film inspired by Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach or Whit Stillman. Instead, the writer-director is Max Winkler (son of Henry), making his feature debut with the story of a young man (Michael Angarano) who drags his best friend (Reece Thompson) to the wedding of a woman (Uma Thurman) he's determined to steal away from her dashing fiancé (Lee Pace).

If it sounds like a plan perfect for "Rushmore's" Max Fischer, you're in the ballpark, though Winkler never apes Anderson's mannered visuals. Pretty much every character in "Ceremony" irritated me at first and the movie's twee contrivances, ratatat dialogue and hipster soundtrack all suggest a filmmaker overly impressed with himself. And yet somewhere along the line Winkler rights the ship—not entirely, but the ways the relationships develop are surprising enough to save the movie from being a total annoyance.

While Pace's broad English-accented performance is mostly a misfire, the other three members of the cast fare better. Especially Angarano, who keeps impressing in movies that don't really go anywhere commercially. At this point in his career he probably doesn't see scripts until Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg have already passed, but he's a promising actor waiting for a worthy breakthrough.

["Ceremony" is also available from Magnolia's on demand service through select cable companies, Xbox Live and Amazon.com.]