The Marrying Man

Written by Neil Simon, The Marrying Man follows Alec Baldwin’s Charley Pearl as he walks away from his engagement to Elisabeth Shue’s Adele Horner after meeting a sultry nightclub singer (Kim Basinger’s Vicki Anderson) – with the film subsequently detailing the couple’s consistently tempestuous relationship and their multiple marriages to one another. It’s ultimately not surprising to learn that The Marrying Man was plagued by behind-the-scenes problems and mishaps, as the movie’s erratic sense of pacing is compounded by both a seriously overlong running time (115 minutes!) and a relentlessly episodic narrative – with, in terms of the latter, the ratio of compelling to pointless sequences aggressively low. And while there’s no denying the palpable chemistry between Baldwin and Basinger, The Marrying Man never entirely gives the viewer to wholeheartedly care about the relationship between their respective characters – as Simon layers the proceedings with one madcap interlude after another. (Problems ensue as it becomes more and more clear that none of this stuff is actually funny.) The lack of momentum ensures that the movie runs out of steam long before it reaches its inevitable conclusion, and it’s finally obvious that The Marrying Man could’ve seriously benefited from a more judicious editing style.

** out of ****