Think I Do I Movie Review
If we watch too many movies, we might believe that the boy we left behind is our soul mate, destined to run off into the sunset with us where we'll live happily ever after. For most of us, he isn't, of course, and we know exactly why (or think we do). But suppose we're wrong? That's the premise of Brian Sloan's I Think I Do, or, as the Internet Movie Database cleverly subtitles it: One Wedding. No Funerals. Carol Gonzales (Lauren Velez) is getting married to Matt (Jamie Harrold). All their friends are coming to the ceremony, including soap opera writer Bob (Alexis Arquette) and his unofficial fiancee, soap opera star Sterling Scott (Tuc Watkins). So are college buddies Beth (Maddie Corman), Eric (Guillermo Diaz), Sarah (Marianne Hagan), and Brendan (Christian Maelen). Bob used to be madly in love with Brendan, but Brendan beat him up when he realized the depth of Bob's feelings for him, thus ending their friendship. Years later, Brendan realizes that he, too, was madly in love with Bob and flirts with him through all the preliminaries leading up to Carol and Matt's wedding. Bob is confused, Brendan is insatiable, Sterling is clueless, and everyone else is looking for action. Filmed mostly in New York, the film is supposed to take place in Washington, D.C. (36 hours of second-unit photography takes care of that discrepancy.) The relationships of most of the characters feel real, fresh, and funny. Arquette is effective as Bob, Corman once again shows what an adroit comedienne she is, Velez is a riot as the reluctant bride who hates the fuss and every aspect of her wedding except the groom, and Watkins does a clever satire of daytime's deceptively boyish idol. Marni Nixon appears in a funny bit as Aunt Alice and Dechen Thurman (a ringer for Uma) holds his own with Corman as a lusty photographer. But newcomer Maelen brings dark eyes and lustrous lashes to the key role of Brendan and little else. We can accept a fairy tale like I Think I Do, but we need a little help in the suspension of reality department and Maelen needs more film experience to supply it. Otherwise, if not quite the 1997 screwball comedy Sloan wants it to be, I Think I Do is a painless fantasy of what might be…IF!
1997 92m/C Alexis Arquette, Christian Maelen, Mad-die Corman, Guillermo Diaz, Lauren Velez, Jamie Harrold, Marianne Hagan, Tuc Watkins, Marni Nixon, Dechen Thurman; D: Brian Sloan; W: Brian Sloan; C: Milton Kam; M: Gerry Gershman.