Cinematic predicaments at weddings are often bigger than life

What can go wrong will go wrong on a wedding day in Hollywood.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As you fret about all that can go wrong on the big day, there's something therapeutic about the wedding predicaments Hollywood dreams up, crises so outlandish they can make you feel that, just maybe, you'll pull off your own nuptials without too many hitches.
If Julia Roberts steals Cameron Diaz's bridegroom in "My Best Friend's Wedding," there's a good chance she won't show up and do the same to you. If Steve Martin has a panic attack in "Father of the Bride," maybe your own dad will come through with the patience of Job. If tongue-tied minister Rowan Atkinson massacres the vows in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," your own clergyman just might have oratorical skills on the order of William Jennings Bryan.
"Somebody said to me only the other day that whenever the family members are feeling blue and starchy and it's the middle of winter and it's raining and they feel like getting out of themselves, they take the film out and play it, because it does simply lift them to a level of wonderful, wild absurdity that they would never normally get to," said Mike Newell, director of "Four Weddings and a Funeral."
Still, chances are you'll have a smoother walk down the aisle than the brides and grooms up on the screen. Here's a sampling of flicks to help ease your own wedding-bell worries:
U"The Philadelphia Story" (1940) -- If every love triangle were this much fun, we'd all be swapping partners at the altar. George Cukor's great, great screwball romance stars Katharine Hepburn as a socialite on the eve of her second marriage, Cary Grant as her devious ex-hubby and James Stewart as a slick reporter whose quest for an insider tabloid scoop lands him in love with the bride.
U"The Princess Bride" (1987) -- Be happy there won't be any Rats of Unusual Size on your wedding menu and no Dread Pirate Roberts on the guest list. Rob Reiner's fairy tale for adults tests the limits of true love for Cary Elwes and Robin Wright as they encounter huge rodents, buccaneers, master swordsmen and a crazy old conjurer (Billy Crystal).
U"Fiddler on the Roof" (1971) -- If he were a rich man, Russian milkman Tevye (Topol) might have it easier marrying off his five daughters in Norman Jewison's musical. His oldest girl's wedding is busted up by Cossacks, the next leaves home for Siberia to join her exiled fiance, and the middle daughter breaks her daddy's heart by marrying outside the faith. To top it off, his cart-horse keeps coming up lame.
U"Monsoon Wedding" (2002) -- Who says a huge wedding has to cost a fortune? Working with little more than spare change compared to most movies, Mira Nair crafts a sumptuous, colorful romp as Punjabi tradition clashes with modern times during the big, sloppy preparations for the arranged marriage between a woman from Delhi and her fiance, an Indian who has moved to America.
U"The Graduate" (1967) -- Dustin Hoffman pulls off the greatest nuptial snatch-and-grab ever in Mike Nichols' blistering satire about a directionless young man seduced by an older woman (Anne Bancroft) and smitten with her daughter (Katharine Ross). Nearly 40 years later, the wedding scene and getaway are as perfect as ever.
U"Muriel's Wedding" (1995) -- If weddings were as good as an ABBA song, would the elopement rate skyrocket? This Australian delight from writer-director P.J. Hogan ("My Best Friend's Wedding") features Toni Collette as a chronic liar whose dream of the perfect marriage plays out -- and crashes and burns -- against a backdrop of sugary tunes from the Swedish pop group.
U"Love Actually" (2003) -- The ensemble romance from writer-director Richard Curtis (who wrote "Four Weddings and a Funeral") has one of cinema's happiest, sappiest marital moments as Keira Knightley's wedding ends with hidden singers and musicians breaking into "All You Need Is Love," a surprise orchestrated by the best man. Of course, the best man is secretly, madly in love with the bride. ...
U"Kill Bill -- Volume 2" (2004) -- The bride wore blood in Quentin Tarantino's two-part revenge fest. The final chapter features the scene that sets in motion the gory quest by ex-assassin Uma Thurman -- known only as The Bride. Her wedding rehearsal is interrupted by former mentor David Carradine, whose hired guns butcher everyone and leave her with a whole new vow.
U"The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) -- James Whale's sequel to "Frankenstein" is even better than the original, with Boris Karloff back as the tragic, flat-topped creation who just longs for a little love and affection. Elsa Lanchester is the ultimate runaway bride, a thing brought back from the dead who has a literal hissy fit when she sees the monster she's been bred to wed.
U"Cold Comfort Farm" (1996) -- Talk about in-law issues. John Schlesinger's offbeat comic tale features Kate Beckinsale as a penniless city girl who moves in with morbidly bizarre rural relations and sets out to reorganize their lives. If the friends-of-the-bride peasants and friends-of-the-groom aristocrats can sit down together in the climactic wedding scene, then any two families should be able to break bread for at least one day.