By: Ava Rogha
A Simple Wedding (2018) is an American romantic comedy that tells the story of Nousha (Tara Grammy), an Iranian-American who is looking for the perfect guy to marry so she can throw a major Persian wedding. Although she’s found the “perfect” guy plenty of times in her parents’ eyes, none of them match with her playful personality.
We get an insight into her life at the beginning of the movie, when she visits her rich Persian fiancé who lives in a mansion with what is considered to be a high-class family. However, Nousha tends to sabotage every single chance she gets with the ideal husband and drags on the engagement process for as long as she has to.
Although a husband with a stable income sounds tempting, it is totally understandable that Nousha is rather desperately looking for her spirit animal.
"Is your mother breaking up with me?"
Even though her parents are desperately encouraging her to marry a rich guy, she decides to fall in love “the normal way”.
While on a street protest with her colleagues and best-friends, she meets charmer Alex (Christopher O’Shea), who immediately sparks an interest in her. And at the end of the protest, they exchange numbers and before you know it, they’re going on a date!
Their first date takes place at an American diner where Alex orders Nousha’s guilty pleasure, a burger with fries. Nousha, on the other hand, orders a small salad to appear ladylike in front of this boy whom she barely knows. However, they end up bonding more than one would during those couple of hours and she spends the night at his place.
From then on, the two are nearly inseparable and decide to take their relationship to the next level, by moving in together. That is of course, without telling her parents!
"He's this free-spirited artist, who's funny and gentle and sensitive and progressive. I'm from a family of fascists."
It doesn’t take long until they’re exposed and Alex is invited to have dinner with Nousha’s parents and grandmother. This nerve-wracking moment gives him the opportunity to pretend he’s someone else! He tells her parents that he’s an engineer when he is, in fact, a bi-sexual artist, who works as a DJ as well.
Nousha’s parents take a liking to Alex, but that changes quickly once they find out that everything they were told was a lie, including the crucial part of the lovebirds moving in together. Despite the lies, Nousha’s parents ask Alex if he wishes to marry their daughter. And as soon as he accepts, the wedding planning begins!
A big Persian wedding is in the making and the couple are getting married in time for Nousha’s uncle Saman (Maz Jobrani), who will be visiting from Iran to attend.
"My mom's gonna wanna make you feel super inadequate in everything you do or will ever do."
Alex could not be more excited to marry his dream girl, but Nousha is far from ready. So will the beauty sabotage her dream wedding with the man she loves or will she proceed? There will also be a major plot-twist at the end, maybe you can already guess what it is! *Hint hint; check the title.
This movie is all laughs and cannot be taken seriously.
It describes the typical Persian stereotypes, by adding humor to it, and mocks some traditions to the extreme.
I really enjoyed seeing Nousha as a free-spirited and independent woman with a job of her own. Although her parents have similar personality traits to Cinderella’s stepmom, they get along with Alex and his family well, and you will notice that they take an interest in teaching his parents about Persian poetry as well.
"Do you think our families are too different?"
It's also got plenty of Persian inside jokes that not a lot of foreigners will understand nor be able to relate to.
And overall, it somewhat introduces foreigners to the Persian language “Farsi” and the Persian culture, although exaggerated, which is not often seen or presented in other American romantic comedies.
Although this movie is a 10/10 for me, I will still honestly speak of the negatives too. Growing up as a Persian in Europe, I have been taught to practice my mother tongue by speaking the language with my family and Persian friends. However, this movie presents a fully Persian family speaking English amongst themselves, which appears unauthentic to the audience. But I do understand that by speaking English amongst themselves it is easier to reach out to a bigger and international audience.
Nousha: He makes art out of balloons!
Uncle Saman: Is he a clown?
Overall, it’s an amazing movie with a great plot and a star cast including Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani and Iranian-Canadian actress Tara Grammy, which you can catch right now on Persia’s Got Talent! And to wrap everything up, A Simple Wedding is directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Sara Zandieh, who won the second place at the Tribeca Film Festival for her short-film, The Pool Party (2010)!
Stream A Simple Wedding on Amazon Prime!
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