A film we wrote plenty about last year was “Ceremony” starring Michael Angarano (“Snow Angels”) and Uma Thurman. A romantic dramedy, the picture centers on a young man (Angarano) who falls in love with an older woman (Thurman) and attempts to break up her wedding at a beach town with the help of his best friend (Reece Thompson). The picture also co-stars Lee Pace (“Pushing Daisies”) as Thurman’s fiance and Jake Johnson (“Paper Heart”). Thanks to the TIFF site now we have a first look image and a long synopsis:
A perpetual adolescent stumbling through his twenties with inflated self-confidence, Sam (Michael Angarano) clings to the naive notions of love and romance that he immortalizes in a series of unpublished children’s books. With his sensitive, sycophantic best friend Marshall (Reece Thompson) in tow, he heads to the Hamptons to make a last-ditch effort to woo the object of his infatuation. Thirty-something publisher Zoe (Uma Thurman) is about to marry Whit (Lee Pace), a self-important documentary filmmaker who’s an outrageous cross between Jacques Costeau and “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin. Sam refuses to accept that anyone else could be the love of Zoe’s life and, dressed to the nines in a crumpled burgundy suit, crashes Zoe and Whit’s wedding reception, determined to prove his point.
Like its lead character, Ceremony is dressed for laughs, clothed in all the finery common to romantic comedies: geeky best friends crashing a party in search of revelatory adventure; an egotistical buffoon as the lead character’s romantic competition; a younger sibling (Paper Heart’s Jake M. Johnson – heartfelt and hilarious in every scene) who’s satisfied being a loser since the role of overachiever has already been taken; and of course, a lovelorn lad who clings to his romantic delusions until they blow up in his face.
The film is the directorial debut of Max Winkler (son of Henry Winkler) who co-wrote the still-unproduced comedy “The Adventurer’s Handbook” with Jonah Hill and screenwriter Matt Spicer. Spicer is a producer of “Ceremony” and Winkler wrote the screenplay on his own. Winkler also is known (at least by us) as the guy who produced and directed episodes of the excellent web series “Clark and Michael” that starred Clark Duke and Michael Cera which we adored (if you’ve never seen, go run now). He also helmed an episodes of David Wain’s funny web series “Wainy Days.” Winkler and Spicer also have a project called, “The Ornate Anatomy of Living Things” that Jason Reitman is producing set up Fox Searchlight, so while they’re unknowns in a sense, obviously the industry has already taken notice of their talents (Reitman is also an executive producer of “Ceremony”). The picture will premiere at the Toronto International Film festival on September 13 and also screens on the 15 and 19.