I imagine there are few greater displeasures than finding oneself sitting in a movie theater watching the latest Robin Williams comedy License to Wed. It is, without a doubt, one of the more singularly painful experiences I’ve had to endure this summer, and while nowhere near as heinous as other recent comedic monstrosities like Deck the Halls or Little Man this one is still bad enough I’m thinking a trip to the dentist would have been more wondrous than viewing this thing was.

John Krasinski, Robin Williams and Mandy Moore in Warner Bros. Pictures' License to Wed

The plot concerns a recently engaged couple (Mandy Moore and The Office star John Krasinski) who go see the former’s childhood minister Reverend Frank (Williams) to schedule their marriage ceremony. Before he will do so, however, he forces the twosome into an intricate training course designed to prove their marriage preparedness. But the whole thing feels engineered more to tear them apart then to bring them together, and by the time all is said and done both are beginning to wonder what the heck they saw in one another in the first place.

I don’t even know what to say. This film is bad, really bad. I laughed twice, neither times having anything to do with Williams or his character which, considering how the comedian can usually make a simple reading of the phone book humorous, is quite telling. Moore and Krasinski are a charming pair and offer real romantic chemistry, but the movie lets them down in just about every way imaginable. It’s a tough slog, and even at a relatively quick 92 minutes by the time it was over I’d felt like I’d been sitting watching it for an interminable eternity.

The screenplay and story (four writers are credited) is a mess, but there is at least a somewhat interesting idea lingering within to give them a partial pass on full blame for this monstrosity. The same cannot be said for director Ken Kwapis. While the filmmaker has tended to shine on the small screen (he’s directed episodes of The Office, The Bernie Mac Show and Freaks and Geeks), his theatrical efforts range from the pleasantly okay (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) to the downright awful (The Beautician and the Beast, Dunston Checks In), and there are far more of the latter littering the guy’s resume.

License to Wed also falls into the second category. The film has no rhythm, no consistent tone and certainly no sense of timing or pace. It is brutal and sophomoric, and if it weren’t for a couple of (admittedly) fantastic moments by Krasinski I’m not sure I could have endured any of it. My opinion? Kwapis’ directorial license should be revoked, while his movie should be divorced from theaters as soon as possible.

Film Rating:  ê1/2  (out of 4)