Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
When The Wedding Singer hit theaters on this day in 1998, I was just four (almost five!) years old. I didn’t know what awaited me by the time I rolled into my early teen years, but when I finally experienced this glorious ’80s-set rom-com for the first time, I was floored. Not only was it my first real introduction to 1980s pop culture (with the exception of some great anecdotes and blue-eyeshadow filled photos of my mother), but the wacky romance of it all totally swept me off my feet. I’d seen my fair share of romantic comedies, but this? This was something different. This was the kind of infinitely watchable, ridiculously goofy, totally heartfelt movie that you tell your friends about. This kind of rom-com you return to years later and wonder why it took you so long to get back to it.
Once upon a time, I was none the wiser to the irresistible on-screen partnership of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I was largely oblivious to the fact that two actors could have real chemistry at all, let alone the electric connection that Sandler and Barrymore boast in The Wedding Singer. From the moment the opening notes of “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” kick off the film and Sandler goofily croons into the microphone while Barrymore waits tables at this wild wedding, we know something special is about to happen – and boy, does it. When our two leads meet (while Sandler’s Robbie Hart pats the back of a drunk tween boy barfing in a dumpster), sparks fly. The corners of their mouths turn up as they make their introductions, despite their very best efforts to stay cool. Robbie and Julia both might be tied up in different engagements, but we know that can’t last – even if they don’t yet.
The ensuing friendship is one interesting enough to drive the entire movie, and it’s also one that makes The Wedding Singer a unique phenomenon. Robbie respects that Julia is in a committed (or so she thinks) relationship, and never tries to dissuade her from going after what she wants until it’s clear she feels the same way about him. Perhaps the courtship here holds up better than so many films like it because of Sandler’s inherent everyman charm – I’d wager this is one of his best performances, yes, even up there with Punch-Drunk Love. There’s just nothing quite like watching Sandler and Barrymore banter back and forth; we root for them when they’re winning, want to pick them up when they’re down, and pray (DESPERATELY!) that they end up together.
Robbie and Julia’s relationship aside, there’s just so much that’s good about The Wedding Singer. We’ve got some now-classic Sandler outbursts in the form of “Holiday”, “Somebody Kill Me Please”, and “once again, things that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!”, a drunken, bad speech-giving Steve Buscemi in the film’s first moments, Jon Lovitz’s terrifying rendition of “Ladies’ Night”, a child cursing like a pro (“Aunt Linda! You’re a bitch!”), a Grandma Rap, a Billy Idol cameo for the ages. There are jokes buried within jokes that get you later – jokes that still make me belly laugh, that I still quote at people (no matter how many times they ask me to please stop). And then, of course, there’s the classic “Grow Old With You” plane performance that still makes me tear up. How is any other rom-com supposed to top that? It’s a rare feat.
What’s wonderful about The Wedding Singer – and perhaps why so many of us return to it time and time again – is that there isn’t an ounce of snark to it. It’s an earnest, heartfelt movie, one shameless in its goofiness, open in its playful love for the ’80s, enthusiastic in its optimism. We might not believe in love very often, but The Wedding Singer does, from start to finish. And that’s why it’s the rom-com I’ll be growing old with (and I know it will put me to bed when I’ve had too much to drink).
