Jenny's Wedding

Jenny's Wedding is a 2015 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mary Agnes Donoghue and starring Katherine Heigl, Alexis Bledel, Tom Wilkinson, Linda Emond, Grace Gummer and Matthew Metzger. Heigl plays Jenny, a woman who finally decides to get married, but her choice of partner tears her conventional family apart. Jenny's Wedding was filmed on location in Cleveland from October 2013. An Indiegogo campaign was later launched to help raise money for post-production costs. The film was released on July 31, 2015, in a limited release by IFC Films.

Jenny's Wedding
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMary Agnes Donoghue
Written byMary Agnes Donoghue
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySeamus Tierney
Production
companies
  • MM Productions
  • Merced Media Partners
  • PalmStar Entertainment
Distributed byIFC Films
Release date
  • July 31, 2015 (2015-07-31) (United States)
CountryUnited States

Plot

Jenny is the middle daughter of a conservative Catholic family in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a closeted lesbian who tells her family that her partner of five years, Kitty, is her roommate. Her parents, Eddie and Rose, have always dreamed of the day their middle daughter will get married and are always reminding her about her biological clock and trying to fix her up with men. Jenny realizes that she does want to get married and have a family, and proposes to Kitty. She decides to come out to her family and her parents are taken aback that she is not only gay, but engaged to a woman. Jenny has the support of her older brother, Michael, who says he suspected she was gay since high school. Her younger sister Anne always felt that Jenny was their mother's favorite and is not so much upset that Jenny is a lesbian as that she lied to her all those years. They reconcile when Jenny asks her to be her maid of honor. Jenny's parents want her to stay closeted in front of their friends but she refuses, causing a big fight with her father. Her parents at first refuse to go to the wedding, but eventually her mother realizes that Jenny is the same daughter she's always been proud of and agrees to go. Jenny's father has a talk with his best friend the day of the wedding and finally also agrees to go, and both parents walk her down the aisle. Over the closing credits a picture is shown of the whole family, including Jenny and Kitty with their new baby.

Cast
  • Katherine Heigl as Jennifer "Jenny" Farrell, Eddie and Rose's daughter, Michael and Anne's sister, Kitty's fiancée[1]
  • Alexis Bledel as Kitty Friedman, Jennifer's fiancée[2]
  • Tom Wilkinson as Eddie Farrell, Michael, Anne and Jennifer's father and Rose's husband[1]
  • Linda Emond as Rose Farrell, Michael, Anne and Jennifer's mother and Eddie's wife[1]
  • Grace Gummer as Anne Farrell, Michael and Jennifer's sister, Frankie's wife, Eddie and Rose's daughter[1]
  • Matthew Metzger as Michael Farrell, Anne and Jennifer's brother, Eddie and Rose's son and Lorraine's husband
  • Houston Rhines as Frankie, Anne's husband[3]
  • Cathleen O'Malley as Lorraine Farrell, Michael's wife
  • Sam McMurray as Denny O'Leary, Ellen's husband
  • Diana Hardcastle as Ellen O'Leary, Denny's wife

Production

Conception and development

Jenny's Wedding was written and directed by Mary Agnes Donoghue. She also produced the film, along with Gail Levin and MM Productions' Michelle Manning.[1] The rights to the film were put up for sale at the American Film Market from November 6, 2013.[1]

Filming

Principal photography on Jenny's Wedding commenced on October 28, 2013, in Greater Cleveland.[4][5] The film was expected to shoot in the metropolitan area for three to four weeks.[4] Filming locations included University Heights City Hall and Cuyahoga County Councilman Julian Rogers's home in Cleveland Heights.[6] Rogers and his family moved out on October 23 and the studio paid for a rental in Shaker Heights.[7] Representatives from the studio had noticed the house and asked Rogers "out of the blue" if they could use it for filming. The family returned home in November.[7] On November 15, Heigl was seen shooting some scenes for the film on Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland inside the 5th Street Arcades. Some filming was done at the Trinity Cathedral.[8] Production wrapped in Cleveland during the same month.[9]

Post-production

An Indiegogo campaign was set up to aid in post-production with Donoghue and her crew asking $150,000 to cover the costs of music, titles, color and sound.[10] Lucas Shaw from The Wrap thought that some of the money raised would go towards taking the film to festivals, as, at the time, it had yet to secure a domestic distributor.[10] The campaign ended on April 12, 2014, having raised $96,691.[11][12]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Outfest Los Angeles Film Festival on July 10, 2015. IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the film and released it on July 31, 2015, in the United States in a limited release and through video on demand a day later on August 1, 2015.[12][13]

Reception

Jenny's Wedding received mainly negative reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 20% rating based on reviews from 15 critics, with an average rating of 4.02/10.[14]

Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times noted that, "One of the many irritants in this trite, well-intentioned lecture on tolerance: The audience is always several moves ahead of the script."[15]

The Hungarian National Media- and News Authority (Nemzeti Média és Hírközlési Hatóság) in 2021 had declared Jenny's Wedding unfit for consumption by children, invoking the "Protection of Children act"",[16] limiting viewership to only those above eighteen years of age."[17]

References
  1. McNary, Dave (October 23, 2013). "AFM: Katherine Heigl to Star in 'Jenny's Wedding' (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  2. Webber, Stephanie (February 14, 2014). "Katherine Heigl, Alexis Bledel Play Lesbian Partners, Cuddle in Bed in Indie Film Jenny's Wedding: First Picture". Us Weekly. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  3. Profitt, Issac (November 24, 2013). "Munroe Falls' own Houston Rhines takes part in 'Jenny's Wedding,' shooting in Cleveland". Cuyahoga Falls News Press. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  4. O'Connor, Clint (October 24, 2013). "'Jenny's Wedding': New film starring Katherine Heigl to shoot in Greater Cleveland starting Monday". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  5. Silas Lesnick (October 23, 2013). "Katherine Heigl to Headline Jenny's Wedding". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  6. Johnston, Laura (October 29, 2013). "Katherine Heigl films "Jenny's Wedding" at University Heights City Hall". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  7. Tobias, Andrew J. (November 14, 2013). "Katherine Heigl movie being filmed at Cuyahoga County Councilman Julian Rogers' house". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  8. O'Connor, Clint (November 15, 2013). "Katherine Heigl shoots a scene for 'Jenny's Wedding' on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  9. Thompson, Anne (February 12, 2014). "Michelle Manning Explains Why She's the Latest Hollywood Producer to Indiegogo". IndieWire. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  10. Shaw, Lucas (February 12, 2014). "Katherine Heigl Film Producer Seeks Indiegogo Funding to Complete Project". The Wrap. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  11. "Help the filmmakers of 'Jenny's Wedding'". Indiegogo. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  12. McNary, Dave (June 8, 2015). "Katherine Heigl's Gay-Marriage Dramedy 'Jenny's Wedding' Sells to IFC". Variety. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  13. Khatchatourian, Maane (July 2, 2015). "Watch: Katherine Heigl Marries Alexis Bledel in First Trailer for 'Jenny's Wedding'".
  14. "Jenny's Wedding". Rotten Tomatoes.
  15. Catsoulis, Jeannette (30 July 2015). "Review: 'Jenny's Wedding,' a Lecture on Tolerance". The New York Times.
  16. "Hungary approves law banning LGBTQ+ content for minors". 10 December 2021 – via dw.com.
  17. "Gyermekvédelmi törvény akcióban: 18-as karikát kapott a leszbikus esküvőről szóló vígjáték, aminek eddig 12 év volt a korhatára". 10 December 2021 – via telex.hu.
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