Always a Bridesmaid

Starring:Charles Kurzon, Isabel 'Ibby' Ellis Kurzon, Nick Kurzon
Studio: Docurama
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Like her mentor, Ross McElwee (Sherman's March), filmmaker Nina Davenport turns the camera on herself for this award-winning documentary about marriage and relationships. In a film more honest and insightful than any of the graphic sex talk on Sex and the City, Nina, 30, wonders if she is destined for a life of spinsterhood as one by one, her friends marry. "Ever since I was a little girl, I've been afraid of being alone," she confesses. Her job--as a wedding videographer, of all things--helps compound her anxiety, as does Nick, her ambivalent boyfriend who is five years younger and "in no hurry" to pop the question. "It's not easy to photograph love," Nina says. But in conversations both funny and touching, she talks about it with, among others, anxious brides, former boyfriends, aborted wedding pick-ups, and (much to his initial discomfort) Nick. Some senior citizens Nina has befriended provide the reality check. "There's more to life than getting married," one tells her. At one point, Nina reflects on the on-the-job stress of missing "the perfect moment." There are several in this film, among them, "a bestial scene of apocalyptic proportions," otherwise known as Filene's Basement's wedding dress sale, a bachelorette weekend coffee klatch ("You're needy," a friend tells Nina), and a climactic rowboat conversation between Nina and Nick that suggests their relationship may withstand rough waters ahead. This would be Henry Jaglom's idea of a date movie. Watch it with someone afraid to commit. --Donald Liebenson
Description
On the eve of her 30th birthday, Nina Davenport, Harvard graduate, attractive, accomplished filmmaker, has become obsessed with the institution of marriage and the missing ring on her one very important finger. In Always A Bridesmaid, Ms. Davenport confronts her fears from the trenches, where appropriately and ironically, she works as a wedding videographer--all the while questioning why she has complicated her life with a noncommittal boyfriend and surrounded herself with one engaged friend after another. Never shy with her camera, she cross-examines failed love interests, interrogates nervous brides and her increasingly nervous boyfriend and gathers advice from anyone who will listen in this hilarious look at a young woman's pursuit of love and marriage in the 21st Century.

Amazon.com

Like her mentor, Ross McElwee (Sherman's March), filmmaker Nina Davenport turns the camera on herself for this award-winning documentary about marriage and relationships. In a film more honest and insightful than any of the graphic sex talk on Sex and the City, Nina, 30, wonders if she is destined for a life of spinsterhood as one by one, her friends marry. "Ever since I was a little girl, I've been afraid of being alone," she confesses. Her job--as a wedding videographer, of all things--helps compound her anxiety, as does Nick, her ambivalent boyfriend who is five years younger and "in no hurry" to pop the question. "It's not easy to photograph love," Nina says. But in conversations both funny and touching, she talks about it with, among others, anxious brides, former boyfriends, aborted wedding pick-ups, and (much to his initial discomfort) Nick. Some senior citizens Nina has befriended provide the reality check. "There's more to life than getting married," one tells her. At one point, Nina reflects on the on-the-job stress of missing "the perfect moment." There are several in this film, among them, "a bestial scene of apocalyptic proportions," otherwise known as Filene's Basement's wedding dress sale, a bachelorette weekend coffee klatch ("You're needy," a friend tells Nina), and a climactic rowboat conversation between Nina and Nick that suggests their relationship may withstand rough waters ahead. This would be Henry Jaglom's idea of a date movie. Watch it with someone afraid to commit. --Donald Liebenson

Description

On the eve of her 30th birthday, Nina Davenport, Harvard graduate, attractive, accomplished filmmaker, has become obsessed with the institution of marriage and the missing ring on her one very important finger. In Always A Bridesmaid, Ms. Davenport confronts her fears from the trenches, where appropriately and ironically, she works as a wedding videographer--all the while questioning why she has complicated her life with a noncommittal boyfriend and surrounded herself with one engaged friend after another. Never shy with her camera, she cross-examines failed love interests, interrogates nervous brides and her increasingly nervous boyfriend and gathers advice from anyone who will listen in this hilarious look at a young woman's pursuit of love and marriage in the 21st Century.

DVD Features: Interactive Menu; Scene Selection; Photo Gallery; Filmmaker Bio

Customer Reviews:

Covers the range of emotions (fear, desire, ambivalence) women feel about marriage today.......2006-07-05

Okay, so it isn't the most comfortable film to watch. I'm sure plenty of female viewers will see some of their own emotion reflected in this work, as the film maker (who is, ironically, a wedding photographer) confronts her own feelings about marriage, love, having children...and her hopes and dreams for the future.
Her situation? She is in a difficult relationship. She feels the clock ticking. She has a certain scenario in mind for her future but her boyfriend isn't exactly leaping at the chance to hop on board the marriage train. So she is stuck, somewhere between here and there, wondering if she should wait for the guy she loves...or move on in hopes of finding another match. It is a dilemna plenty of women (and men) face...stay or go, compromise one's dreams for love or hope to love as deeply with someone else? Face the possibility of regret or open one's arms to a different future?
I was moved by this film, felt it was told as honestly as possible.

Moving as well as relevant. .......2006-06-27

This movie gives us an interesting insight into a 30 year old woman's perspective on marriage and, therefore, life. However, it is clearly not an essay on the topic but a rather touching and honest portrayal of a human being's (albeit one armed with a movie camera) quest for self understanding.
If you do not like documentaries you may not be as interested, but I did find it moving and specially relevant in a country such as mine (Colombia) where an unmarried woman in her thirties is considered Smithsonian material.
PS: By the way... I'm a guy; ovaries are not a prerequisite to feel related or "get" the movie's message.
PS2: Do check out Nina's other movie: Parallel Lines.

A compelling look at a woman who feels ready to get married, but her boyfriend doesn't.......2006-05-08

Nina Davenport seems to ask the question in ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID: Do you wait for the funny, compatible person you're with to get over his fear of long-term commitment, or do you keep moving, in the hope that you will find someone just as perfect for you who IS ready to take the next step? She seems to prefer the former, but feels maybe the latter might be wiser (& her friends support the latter). At 30, she exposes her own neuroses about wanting to settle down, get married, and have kids in a few years, as well as those of her 5-years-younger boyfriend Nick, who seems to be very gun-shy about commiting much at all. She also profiles some of the clients of her wedding videography day-job and gets her friends & family's take on her situation. There are also very interesting reminiscinces from elderly spinsters that Nina (and I) found fascinating, as well as reality-checks about whether one can have a purposeful, full life without marriage.

Below I have what probably wouldn't be considered a spoiler, but I guess there might be someone out there who might consider it one. So, if you are avidly, paranoidly against learning specifics about a movie or book before you see/read it for the first time, don't read any more. Just rent this DVD.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: Nina had the very interesting (& possibly a little uncomfortable) opportunity to ask Nick's last girlfriend if she had any advice about having a relationship with him, and why it hadn't worked out for them.

I highly recommend this documentary's unflinching, highly personal look at Nina's relationships, as well as those of the people she profiles.

Impressive, touching, thought-provoking.......2004-06-02

I saw this documentary in a theatre when it showed in NY and remember being so impressed with what the filmmaker had been able to do. She wove her own personal story into the broader story of other womens' lives, and marriage in general, and it made for a really interesting movie. Some of the moments she captured (like a birthday party for her boyfriend where his ex-girlfriend was also there) were just fascinating. Totally worthwhile to see this movie.

should be called "desperate and single".......2004-03-10

I expected Harvard alum Nina Davenport to create an insightful film about marriage and women's choices around it. (Do women's expectations of marriage change years after the ceremony? How? ). Instead, I found this film to be a whiny, needy inspection of the filmmaker's frustration with her boyfriend who -- true to stereotype -- can't commit. In between, she jealously analyzes the couples whose weddings she films. To watch this intelligent director/writer/producer/editor do nothing more than dissect her boyfriend's statements with her friends and family, and endlessly discuss whether she should stay with him, was painful. In good faith, I watched till the bitter end. I regret that I didn't turn it off after 10 minutes.

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