There are a plenty of really funny lines in this film - "the money's on the counter, chocolate", "that's why I'm packing light", "I made you short?" - and excellent performances from all the cast. The Miami setting works a treat, it's full of colour and the concept of Nathan Lane as Barbara Bush is wonderful.
But it has a central flaw which brings the whole thing down - it's so horrible for son Dan Futterman to want his father to go through with the deception, that we never care for him or his bride, and the whole thing doesn't have stakes. Because it was the 90s everyone acknowledges that it's a horrible thing he's asked them to do, but this doesn't fix the problem, it just draws more attention to it, and slows the action down because everyone keeps changing their mind about whether to do through with the farce. Which means it takes forever for the farce - the fun and games - to get going.
This could have easily been fixed by having it be Nathan Lane who is the one pushing the deception - they are the ones with the power. You wouldn't feel so sorry for him and Robin Williams and you wouldn't resent their bratty son and fiancee (Calista Flockhart, just before fame). But you do, and it makes the movie drag and unpleasant.
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