The Wedding Days (It. Il grande giorno, Trs. The Great Day) is a 2022 italian comedy movie directed by Massimo Venier.
It's a beautiful weekend for business partners Giovanni and Giacomo (Giovanni Storti and Giacomo Poretti): The former's daughter is going to marry the latter's son, and while the former is clearly ecstatic about that and is willing to spend as much as he can to make the wedding as pompous and opulent as possible, the latter would have preferred a humbler, and especially cheaper, party. However, soon things start to go awry for them, especially when Giovanni's ex-wife (Lucia Mascino) joins the ceremonial party bringing her new flame with her: The clumsy Aldo (Aldo Baglio).
Tropes found in the movie:
- Bearer of Bad News: The Maitre, being the one in charge of the ceremonial party, ends up wearing this role as he has to communicate both Giovanni and Giacomo the many accident that happens to their party.
- Best Friend: Zig-Zagged: Giovanni and Giacomo know each other since childhood, but while Giovanni thinks they are best friends, to the point he's actually seeing their children's marriage, by extension, as his own marriage to Giacomo, Giacomo, at least in the present, can barely stand Giovanni, and tells his son Elio that he's still working with him only for their business' sake.
- Celebrity Cameo: Francesco Renga appears in some scenes of the film. He's supposed to sing at the marriage ceremony but he can't participate anymore as he has to be operated to have his kidney stones removed.
- Childhood Friends:
- Downplayed. Giovanni and Giacomo know each other since primary school. But while Giovanni sees Giacomo as his Best Friend, Giacomo, at least in the present, can barely stand him.
- Since their dads are business partners, Elio and Caterina also know each other since their childhood. They're close to each orther, and Elio loves Caterina, but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings, so in the end they don't marry.
- Discarded, Not Delivered: The second day of the wedding's night Elio writes a message to Caterina asking her if she's sure about the marriage, but he deletes said message. Caterina notices it (as he was writing for a long time) and asks him if what he wanted to ask her was to come to her room, telling him that she's not in the right mood for such activities. He lies to her saying that he wanted to ask her about that.
- Distant Finale: Downplayed. The ending is set 2 years later: Giovanni and Valentina transfer to Burkina Faso to teach the local children to play soccer and math, respectively. Giacomo, now single, is still in charge of Segrate Arredi, but Giovanni is substituted by his daughter Caterina, who has a new fiancé, while Elio is the manager of the Paris' store. Aldo and Margherita return to Norway. Lietta divorces Giacomo and becomes a voluteer for the Italian Red Cross and finds herself a new love. Father Francesco returns to celebrate funerals as he was used to.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Giacomo has two of them: "Vomitino" (Pukey) for his gastric illnesses and "Giacomone", by Giovanni, which is not offensive but Giacomo doesn't like it nonetheless.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Downplayed. cardinal Pineider, despite being a decent person, really enjoys black humor. He's introduced eating a gluten-free tartine, as he's allergic to gluten, only for him to fake an illness just to scare Giovanni and Giacomo and have a laugh.
- False Friend: Some of the guests invited by Giovanni, including his business supplier, act nice to Giovanni and Giacomo when they are with them, but ridicule and make fun of them when they're away. Giovanni accidentally finds out about this by hearing their discussions while in the bathroom and kicks such guests out.
- Hates Being Touched: Discussed. Giacomo tells his wife that he hates when Giovanni touches him, however he doesn't tell Giovanni because he doesn't want to risk his business partnership with him.
- Human Notepad:
- Discussed. Father Francesco mentions writing the groom's and the bride's names when the actual ceremony will start in order to remember them, as he has trouble remembering them.
- Then implied when the actual marragie ceremony starts, as Father Francesco actually takes a moment to look at one of his palms before saying the names of Elio and Caterina.
- The Klutz: Aldo is both clumsy, like when he accidentally sends all the wine bottles at the bottom of the sea, and, while socially adept, he can't read the room even if his life would depend from it. For example, he crack a rather crass joke in front of a cardinal.
- Really Gets Around: Discussed. Margherita, after divorcing Giovanni, had a lot of flings. Aldo starts mentioning some of them while helping the new priest with the cerimonial speech, and apparently one of them was Gérard Depardieu.
- Rule of Pool: It's actually a lake, and not a pool, But Margherita is pushed in the lake by Valentina when the former tells the latter that she should start doing what she really likes, and Valentina replies that she wanted to do that.
- Two-Timing with the Bestie: Discussed. Aldo accidentally mentions that while still engaged to Giovanni, Margherita cheated on him with Giacomo. Giovanni feels betrayed, while Giacomo's wife is angered to the point she wants to leave the wedding.
- Unfortunate Name: As the Kramers failed to pay the rent for the villa Giacomo and Giovanni chose to host the party, the villa's name has to change to its original one: Villa Smerdi, from the surname (Derived from the italian equivalent to "shit") of its original owners. While the Maitre tells them the family's remarkable history, everyone is embarrassed to have chosen a location owned by a family with such surname.
- What Does This Button Do?: Aldo finds an unknown (to him) button amidst the bushes following a cable he deems unsafe and presses it. The button starts the fireworks which should have been launched the next night.
- Why Waste a Wedding?: Downplayed: In the end, after an interruption from Aldo who declares his love to Margherita and despite Caterina having doubts about the marriage, is Elio, who also had lingering doubts about the marriage, as he knows that she doesn't love him, that actually says no to the marriage in front of the altar. The guests leave, especially since Giovanni has spotted them speaking ill of him and Giacomo, and so do the priest. However Aldo's, Giovanni's and Giacomo's families later join a table to eat the food prepared for the ceremony and, for once, they actually manage to enjoy themselves (except Lietta).
- Workplace Betting Pool: The maitre and the staff hired for the ceremony all bet on the outcome of Elio and Caterina's wedding. The maitre bets for a positive outcome, the others for the negative outcome.