Sam Clayton's (Vincent D'Onofrio) getting married. At the last minute, his brother Jjaks (Keanu Reeves) shows up. The bride, Freddie, (Cameron Diaz) is reluctant to go through with the ceremony, but perseveres nevertheless. During the reception, she has a liaison with Jjaks in the bathroom of the brother's mom's house. Sam learns of the betrayal and the rest of the film concerns this dysfunctional trio's goings on.
None of the three is without a past. The viewer tends to root for Jjaks, but that's in spite of his prison record and his tendency to hold up convenience stores. He's the least objectionable one of the three. Freddie may or may not love Jjaks, but she uses him to escape her unhappy marriage, and she has a funny way of showing affection. Sam is the worst of this loser bunch. He doesn't seem to have a prison record, but he's not above stealing and waving his gun around, a lot. There is also a lot of fistfights with his brother, when they aren't cursing at each other. One of the worst cases of sibling rivalry around, probably.
The film tries to throw a bit of comedy around in the otherwise dreary occurrences. But it's not enough to rescue the film, which devolves into truly nasty interactions between the three characters. A few people end up dead, some people are arrested, others knocked around.
The film probably does the best it can with the script, but it's not a film you're going to want to watch again. Reeves and Diaz turn in a decent performance, but D'Onofrio has a tendency to start chewing the scenery a bit, as his want, based on his performance in the Law and Order television series. The set design is good to very good, with the sets believable and adding to the atmosphere of the film. There is some violence, but not overly so. Some simulated sexual scenes that Diaz pulls off well, though her hair stays remarkably neat and orderly after some spirited goings-on.
Dan Akroyd and Tuesday Weld give good supporting work in the film as well.
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