A Wedding Comedy with Gay Spins: "I Think I Do" (1997)

The 1997 movie comedy "I Think I Do," written and directed by Brian Sloan ("Pool Days," a highlight of the first "Boys Life" compilations) is a slight departure from the gay fantasy of the groom recognizing gay feelings on the eve of the wedding, but still fuels the fantasy of the former crush on a straight hunk down the line finally wanting the gay guy.

The movie opens when the bride and groom were apartment mates with the gay guy and the straight guy he worshiped roommates, all seniors at George Washington University. When Bob (Alexis Arquette back when she was a he) made a sexual move on Brendan (Christian Maelen), Brendan punched him. (Even in my day, such frustrated passions were suffered through in high school not as seniors in college, and awareness of the possibility of male-male love and sex surely was more widespread in the 1990s than it was in the 1960s!)

Everyone, including Brendan's then girlfriend Sarah (Marianne Hagan), is reunited for the wedding of Carol (Lauren V©lez, before becoming Dr. Gloria Nathan on "Oz" or Lt. Maria Laguerta on "Dexter") , Bob's best friend, and Matt (Jamie Harrold), who have been living together for years. She is not into all the wedding hoopla,but appreciates how sweet her fianc© is in putting up with her mother's fantasies of a wedding (Patricia Mauceri has the thankless role of the control-freak wedding-organizing mother).

Meanwhile, another college friend, stoner Eric (Guillermo D­az before "Weeds") connects with Carol's wild younger sister Celia (Elizabeth Rodriguez), Bob has spent the last year and 18 months with hunky tv soap star Sterling Scott (Tuc Watkins) who is pushing for commitment. And there's also the unsinkable and generally sloshed Aunt Alice (Marni Nixon, bets known as the sing voice of Deborah Kerr in "The King and I" and of Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady").

There's a shortage of rooms, a situation exacerbated by Sterling passing out, locking out Bob and Brendan, and a neck brace, and other anemic farcical elements. Fortunately, there is no one as annoying as Kym (Anne Hathaway) in "Rachel Getting Married," though I wonder why I attended another wedding movie after Rachel's.

I have been at a lot of straight weddings, only one with tensions about same-sex liaisons (and that because I was sitting next to the lesbian who had been dropped by the bride).

The comedy was pretty lame. There were a few good lines and I laughed at something I thought really stupid There are also many cutesy lines that have all the lilt of a lead balloon.

I liked the romance between the bride and the groom. There was some interest in seeing a younger Lauren V©lez (also she is very good here), and a preoperative Alexis Arquette, and Marni Nixon. It takes an effort of suspension of disbelief that either Brendan or Sterling, let alone both of them, want to live happily ever after with Bob. He has big lips, but also big teeth. Personally, I think that Brendan got it right back in college -- Sterling reads Danielle Steele novels and likes what Bob writes for his soap opera character, but why want to marry him?

There is a commentary track I haven't heard, a trailer for "Think" and ones for half a dozen other DVDs including "Burnt Money" and "The Edge of 17."