Classic Review: Confetti

Confetti (2006)

Starring: Martin Freeman, Jessica Stevenson, Stephen Mangan, Meredith MacNeill, Robert Webb, Olivia Colman, Jimmy Carr, Felicity Montagu

Director: Debbie Isitt

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn






It's competition time. Confetti magazine are looking for 'The Most Original Wedding of the Year'. They are giving two hopefuls the opportunity to create and win their own dream wedding. The three finalists will be assisted by wedding planners through their day to day preparation of the ceremony and reception. This will be followed by the main event itself, where each of the couples will compete for the top prize of a luxury home. The winners will have the prestige of appearing on next issues front cover of Confetti.

The competition, rigged from the beginning, is a total gimmick. But not to everyone. We follow couples Matt (Freeman) and Sam (Stevenson), both inspired by film musicals, Josef (Mangan) and Isabelle (MacNeill), two hugely competitive tennis players and finally Michael (Webb) and Joanna (Colman), two bare all naturists, en route to the finals. Aiding each of them along the way are Heron (Vincent Franklin) and Hough (Jason Watkins) the wedding planners, whilst behind the scenes, the publishers, Antoni (Carr) and Vivian (Montagu), argue their choice of winner.

Everyone seems to have various problems to solve along the way. Sam has family issues stemming mostly from the brake up of her father and mother. Josef and Isabelle feel they should, like Matt and Sam, have a choreographer for their marriage, that along with Josef feeling jealous of Isabelle's trainer. Problems also arise for Michael and Jonanna who, against the wishes of the magazine, want to preform their vows completely naked, which leads to Jonanna having cold feet.

As a comedy, for the most part, Confetti is extremely funny. The plot, as with the majority of mockumentaries, is mostly improvised. The acting is excellent all around, in particular, Stephen Mangan provides some of the biggest laughs. Also, it's great to finally see Jessica Stevenson in a proper film leading role, which proves that up until now, with the exception of the television series Spaced, she has been a massively under-used talent.


Confetti isn't the most original idea ever, we've seen this thing done plenty of times before, most notably by Christopher Guest (Best In Show). It's also far from consistently funny, a running joke about Isabelle's nose, literally, falls flat on it's face. Also the last third, in which the romance comes to the fore, the film noticeably suffers from a lack of jokes, this said, it would take even the most hardened cynic to leave without grinning from ear to ear.