except for a few bright moments of good verbal comedy , that old feeling is <NEG> embarrassing to sit through </NEG> . bette midler and dennis farina play lilly and dan , actress and author , once married , now violently divorced , and back together one last time for their daughter molly's ( paula marshall ) wedding . lilly and dan hate each other passionately -- so passionately that they have sex at the wedding and fall in love again . each ditches his or her current spouse of 14 years and runs off with the other . molly , married now only 24 hours , runs off in search of her irresponsible parents while her husband keith ( jamie denton ) tries to console the abandoned spouses . in molly's search for her parents , she somehow falls in love with lilly's paparazzo joey ( danny nucci ) . meanwhile , the newlywed keith ends up consoling dan's wife rowena ( gail o'grady ) in bed . the audience i saw this with apparently thought that all the adultery was hilarious . i'm no dan quayle , but i thought <NEG> it was a bit creepy </NEG> . the message seemed to be " ignore your responsibilities unrepentantly and have fun fucking who you wish . " " family values " aside , there's something cruel about all this . perhaps this movie would have played well as a black comedy , but the movie is a romantic comedy . we are supposed to be rooting for these <NEG> creeps </NEG> . reiner and screenwriter leslie dixon tried to make it easier on us by making the victims unlikeable . lilly's husband is a new-age flake who rambles about " emotional valet parking , " so <NEG> we can write him off as irrelevant </NEG> . dan's wife is vain , manipulative , and jealous so <NEG> we can write her off as a bitch </NEG> . molly's husband is a career-conscious , self-centered republican politician who thinks she's too fat ( and just for good measure , he also fucked dan's wife ) , so <NEG> we can write him off as a prick </NEG> . everyone else falls in love . but still , <NEG> that somehow doesn't justify the actions </NEG> of the movie's main characters . " he's a prick " or " she's a bitch " is no defense . the movie is somewhat redeemed by some funny dialog -- often during heated arguments -- and by above-average performances by midler and farina ( breaking out of his character-actor mold ) . other than that , it's a standard romantic comedy with <NEG> a very substandard gimmick </NEG> .
