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Laughs mix and mingle in sweet 'Confetti'

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Anyone who has glimpsed even a smidgen of "Today Throws a Wedding," hosted by Matt Lauer and the gang, knows the British mockumentary "Confetti" isn't too far off the mark. In fact, it may not be outrageous enough.

A glossy wedding magazine called Confetti is sponsoring a contest for Most Original Wedding. Three couples. Three months to prepare. The winner gets a "dream" house (you wouldn't know by the sketch) and a spot on Confetti's cover.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

'Confetti'

B-

The verdict: Slight but sweet, and sometimes quite funny.

Director: Debbie Isitt
Starring: Martin Freeman, Jessica Stevenson, Jimmy Carr, Alison Steadman, Felicity Montagu
Run time: 100 minutes
Release date: Sept. 15, 2006
Rating: R for nudity and language.
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After rejecting dinosaur, Elvis and Roman-themed proposals, Confetti's editor, Vivien Kaye-Wiley (Felicity Montagu), settles on these three: Matt and Sam (Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson), who want a musical wedding in the style of Busby Berkeley; Josef and Isabelle (Stephen Mangan and Meredith MacNeill), a fiercely competitive tennis couple who envision ball boys as attendants; and Michael and Joanna (Robert Webb and Olivia Colman), a pair of naturists (that's nekked to you and me).

Each will be assisted by a pair of professional wedding planners, Archibald and Gregory (Vincent Franklin and Jason Watkins), who are also life partners.

In the tradition of Christopher Guest, director Debbie Isitt has asked her cast — a potpourri of popular British comedians — to improvise their dialogue. And, as can happen in Guest's movies, some very funny stuff — "Please get it into your thick head how much I respect you," Michael tells his hapless partner — alternates with some very dead air.

The Guest comparison is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, the film works so well you wonder why he didn't get there first. Other times, you wish he had, as you mentally cast Parker Posey and Eugene Levy as the driven tennis couple or Guest himself as one of the wedding planners.

An important element of a successful mockumentary is that it takes itself seriously, and to do that, it must have a certain intrinsic logic. That doesn't always happen in "Confetti." For example, the naturist couple is a one-joke concept — Naked badminton! Naked bicycling! — that doesn't really work. If the editor refuses to let them pose undressed for her cover, why would she choose them in the first place?

Still, "Confetti" has an innate sweetness — especially when it comes to Archibald and Gregory, the most endearing of all the twosomes. They're the ones who give us the movie's words to live by: "You are a silly sausage."