Full Review

Just about the best thing to be said concerning "License to Wed" (Warner Bros.) is that Robin Williams' irreverent reverend character is not a Catholic priest.

Nonetheless, the film is a woefully unfunny tale about an engaged couple, Sadie (Mandy Moore) and Ben (John Krasinski) who plan to marry, at the bride's insistence, at her family's Protestant church.

Reverend Frank (Williams in subpar form) will conduct the ceremony if they'll undertake an arduous marriage preparation course, one hopefully unlike anything that exists in real life. There are two prerequisites: each couple must write their own vows, and (gasp!) refrain from sex for the three weeks leading to the wedding. (Yes, this couple has indeed been living together, a fact Reverend Frank accepts with disappointing equanimity.)

Sadie has a divorced, jaded sister, Lindsey (Christine Taylor), who takes every opportunity to diss Ben, especially during one of Reverend Frank's word-association games that are part of the course. Also offering troublemaking input are Sadie's childhood friend, Carlisle (Eric Christian Olsen), and Ben's married best friend, Joel (DeRay Davis).

Director Ken Kwapis' putative comedy plays like a B-level TV sitcom. The only clever conceit is the use of two strange animatronic babies which Ben and Sadie are given to experience the more unsavory aspects of parenthood.

But even in this comedic context, the reverend is far too irreligious throughout, as in the impromptu healing ceremony he conducts after almost breaking Ben's nose in a (meant-to-be-therapeutic) aggressive game of catch. He's assisted by his chubby aide-de-camp, Choir Boy (Josh Flitter, who grows more tiresome with each film), a hodgepodge of Latin mumbo jumbo, an "ashes to ashes" invocation, and chanting of "the power of Christ compels you."

Though ostensibly with good intent, Reverend Frank also engages in such questionable behavior as wiretapping the couple's home, and almost pruriently grilling them on their sex lives.

Adding to the film's myriad offenses is the almost total absence of laughs.

The film contains an overall irreverent tone, acceptance of a premarital living arrangement, sexual banter and innuendo, crude language, mild profanity, crass expressions and scatological humor. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.