"Wedding Wars" is a light comedy with some interesting aspects. Without being in one's face, the message it wants to project comes across clearly. As directed by Jim Fall and based on a screenplay by Stephen Mazur, the movie deals with a current issue that has divided America: the right of gays to get married. It is puzzling how people secured in their own sexuality can get so adamant in the way they condemn a group that has been so discriminated for being different.The story centers on two brothers, Ben and Shel Grandy. Ben is getting married to the governor's daughter. The father is opposed to the idea of gays getting married. Shel, who is involved with a male assistant district attorney, comes out to Ben, as well his own parents, and to the rest of the community. As a way to protest their being chastised for standing out, Shel calls for a strike just before the wedding is scheduled to take place. Only when Ben realizes that his brother is a good person and learns to accept him, things go back to normal.I was surprised by John Stamos' take on Shel. He gives a sensitive reading to his character. Eric Dane is also effective as Ben, the straight brother whose life goes into turmoil just before getting married. James Brolin has a couple of good moments as the governor.The film is entertaining without being offensive.

This is the best gay comedy I have ever seen; well, to tell the truth, maybe the only one. I watched it all 3 times it was on A&E and am eagerly waiting for it to be available on DVD. John Stamos does a great job playing a wedding planner and hoping to make the governor, the father of the bride, see the light about gay people being to wed. I must confess, we frequently see gay people being treated like villains, and I am guilty of that in my own novel, The Pickled Dog Caper, so it was refreshing to see all the "straight" negative forces in this story. I was hoping A&E would play it again on Valentine's Day, but they did not. None of the networks seemed to realize it was Valentine Week, as you couldn't find Casablanca anywhere, either, but I digress. I must also confess I always made fun of women who watched their romance movies and got misty, but now I understand, and regret that gay people have so long been denied that wonderful involvement in a story.

When I heard that John Stamos was going to be playing a gay man in a new A&E movie, I was a bit perplexed. Stamos normally plays the macho alpha male...could he play a convincing gay man. Yes...why yes he can! His performance as Shel, a party planner, is some of his best work, ever. He's sexy and vulnerable, funny and earnest all at once. It would be really easy for this movie to teeter over the line from slightly campy to really silly, but Stamos helps keep things in balance.Opposite Stamos is Eric Dane as Shel's brother, Ben. Ben is a rather uptight campaign manager for Maine's fictional Governor, Conrad Welling (played masterfully by James Brolin). Ben also happens to be engaged to the Governor's daughter, Maggie (played by Bonnie Somerville). While planning Ben and Maggie's wedding, he discovers that Ben wrote the Governor's speech in favor of constitutionally banning same-sex marriage. The resulting battle mirrors the real-life battles being waged over this issue, but is a lot funnier. It's cliché to say that this movie has a lot of "heart," but that's exactly what it has. A lot of that heart is provided by Sean Maher as Shel's boyfriend Ted, who isn't quite sure how he feels about the whole situation.Without belittling the issue of same-sex marriage, Wedding Wars is able to take a complex and controversial subject and looks at it with humor and warmth. Don't miss it!

Wedding Wars is one of the first attempts to look at the same sex marriage struggle on a political level albeit it is done in a slyly humorous vein.John Stamos an openly gay man is a wedding planner and he's about to perform a labor of love, he's to organize the wedding of his brother who is marrying the daughter of the governor of his state. That governor is James Brolin who in his campaign for re-election has come out against same sex marriage.The important thing to remember here is Brolin is a fairly liberal fellow, but sees where the political current is running and decides not to swim against it. Stamos is upset with this turn of events though by someone who had been held out to him as gay friendly and decides to do something about it.He stages his own one man strike and his withdrawal from the wedding and picketing of the governor's mansion soon gets a lot of media attention. He doesn't win the immediate political war, but he does win the renewed love and respect from friends and family, including a brother who's life was made miserable by all the fuss.There are many things that can birth a political activist, nothing quite succeeds as when an issue involving who you are and the limits placed on your rights because of it, hits one unexpectedly. Stamos does not play a gay stereotype, he could easily have opted for that. His character grows and develops in proportion to the political awareness.Wedding Wars succeeds in delivering the message that rights and respect are not won from the closet. It's a nice made for TV film with a timeless message.