Marital bliss double header: 'A Wedding' and 'The In-Laws'

I am getting married tomorrow -- a fact that excites me, of course, but still hasn't really sunk in and maybe won't until I got through the rehearsal in about 14 hours. In the meantime I watched two wedding-related movies to get me in the mood for my big day.

The first was the relatively obscure 1978 Robert Altman film A Wedding, a project that was born out of an offhand remark the director made while filming his creepy and haunting psychodrama 3 Women in 1977.

And the other is the 1979 cult comedy hit The In-Laws, which I'd seen before but never fully appreciated until now.

Neither film provides much to emulate in real life, but are both very funny and entertaining when it comes to providing insight into how maddening and awkward the process of joining together two families can be.

Altman's A Wedding is the more realistic film in this regard. It is made in Altman's signature style -- a quirky ensemble cast, performing overlapping dialogue, in what appears to be largely improvised scenes.

What little plot there is revolves around two culturally divergent, nouveau riche families coming together for an elaborate ceremony and reception, where virtually everything goes wrong. Affairs begin or are exposed, people die, fights ensue.

Altman, for all the humanism in his movies, seemed to have some pretty cynical impressions of human nature and American culture-- and they are all on display in A Wedding, which plays like a textbook example of how you wouldn't want your nuptials to go.

That doesn't make the movie an unpleasant viewing experience. The terrific cast, led by Carol Burnett (and Mia Farrow in a mostly mute performance) are a riot -- as is the loose and shambling pace of the project. I'm not sure why this film has been overshadowed by so many other Altman works, it may be one of his most underrated.

The In-Laws on the other hand has always enjoyed a huge following. When I first watched it I didn't get why. It was madcap to be sure, but I felt somewhat detached from it. Watching it again, I got on board largely thanks to Peter Falk's perfect performance. He was such a genius at playing off-kilter characters in such a grounded and charming way that you want to go along with them for the ride, even if its deadly.

In The In-Laws he plays a CIA agent who ropes his soon-to-be fellow father-in-law (Alan Arkin) into a freewheeling espionage plot that puts them in front of a firing squad by the last act. If you surrender to the sheer absurdity of this movie, you'll come to understand it as a precursor to films like Wedding Crashers and Meet the Parents, but less gimmicky.

Although both films have very different goals -- one is a subtle character piece, while the other is a broad comedy -- they both play on the anxiousness of encountering members of your spouse's family and trying to assimilate them all as one.

Luckily, I don't have any of the typical trepidation about my in-laws or my future extended family, but I understand the potential for disaster is universal and both of these films tap into the reasonable paranoia and discomfort that coincide with that.

Nothing will probably calm my nerves completely about this Saturday, but at the very least these comedies reminded me -- in a fun way -- that things could be much worse.