Polish Wedding
directed by Theresa Connelly
starring Gabriel Byrne and Claire Danes
Polish Wedding is a modern fable. That is a contradictory statement. Especially since the main character, Hala (Claire Danes), is such a cynical hellion. It is hard to imagine a happy ending for her.
Polish Wedding is the story of a close knit, working class family in an ethnic enclave of Detroit. Hala’s father Bolek (Gabriel Byrne) is a baker and her mother Jadzia (Lena Olin) is a scrubwoman. Hala’s four brothers, sister-in-law, and infant nephew also live under the same roof. Everyone in this movie is full of poetic, emotional feelings. It all gets to be a little too much. And when romantic interludes go wrong, everyone screams and fights in a picturesque fashion. I haven’t seen a movie like this in a long time, which is a good thing, but this is still one odd little movie.
