LICENSE TO WED

Name: LICENSE TO WED
Item: LICENSE TO WED
Author: Review

"Neither Here Nor There"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

In LICENSE TO WED, Ben pops the question to Sadie. Ben tells her that he wants to have their wedding in the Caribbean, but Sadie wants to hold it at the Catholic church her grandfather built, even though she hasn’t been to the church in 10 years. Enter Father Frank, the priest running the church (played by Robin Williams). From the first, the Father, who calls himself Reverend, challenges Ben and Sadie’s marriage plans to see if they are compatible. He even bugs the bedroom in their apartment! Reverend Frank increases the pressure on Ben and Sadie in a series of comic pieces, including two crying, mechanical dolls to see if Ben and Sadie would make good parents.

LICENSE TO WED could have been a fun PG, or even G-rated, comedy, but the filmmakers load it up with foul language, sexual jokes and references, and diluted religious content. There are few serious religious moments and no positive references to Jesus, despite the story’s Christian setting. Thus, although it gives a nod to the sanctity of holy matrimony, LICENSE TO WED contains too much content that will offend Christians and moral families.

Content:

(C, PC, B, ABAB, Ho, LLL, V, S, N, A, M) Light Christian worldview from a liberal perspective with a light nod to the sanctity of holy matrimony and a couple positive references to God (including “God is just but kind”), but with little serious religious content, too much off color comedy and an unfunny scene where a Catholic priest and a boy make fun of Christian televangelists, faith healing and exorcism while using Christ’s name as part of the joke, plus a homosexual reference where priest encourages boy in a Bible class to name a commandment and “make your two moms proud”; 15 obscenities, two strong profanities, 17 light profanities, three or four blasphemies, and dolls have snot and vomit come out of them; light comic, slapstick violence such as baseball hits man’s nose hard enough to make it bleed and table with food turned over; implied fornication between unmarried couple who live together and get engaged, plus some sexual jokes and references; upper male nudity; alcohol use; no smoking; and, miscellaneous immorality such as ordained marriage counselor spies on engaged couple and bugs the bedroom in their apartment.

More Detail:

LICENSE TO WED is a breezy, sometimes funny take on getting married, but it goes overboard when it tries to milk laughter from its vaguely liberal view of Christianity. The only time Jesus Christ enters the picture is a scene where Robin Williams makes fun of Christian televangelists, faith healing and exorcism.

When Ben (played by John Krasinski of THE OFFICE) pops the question to Sadie (played by Mandy Moore), he tells her that he wants to have the wedding in the Caribbean. Sadie, however, wants to hold it at the Catholic church her grandfather built, even though she hasn’t been to the church in 10 years.

Enter Father Frank, the Catholic priest running the church (played by Robin Williams). From the first, the Father, who likes to call himself Reverend, challenges Ben and Sadie’s marriage plans to see if they are truly compatible. He even bugs the bedroom in their apartment! Reverend Frank increases the pressure on Ben and Sadie in a series of comic set pieces, including two crying, mechanical baby dolls to see if Ben and Sadie would be able to handle the pressures of parenthood.

LICENSE TO WED could have been a fun PG, or even G, movie, but the filmmakers load it up with foul language, sexual jokes and references, and diluted religious content. As implied above, there are few serious religious moments and no really positive references to Jesus, despite the story’s Christian setting. Thus, although it gives a nod to the sanctity of holy matrimony, LICENSE TO WED contains too much content that will offend Christians and moral families. The movie is neither here nor there. The offensive content is too light to attract pagan moviegoers who delight in such things and too strong to attract families and people of faith.

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What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.