Weddings bring out the best and worst in people. Weddings make strangers into relatives. Weddings are sometimes the first-time people are thrown together, forced into becoming relatives. A Special Relationship is about two men who are not only strangers but are from two different countries and who will shortly become family.
American Pete Esposito, father of the groom, is a plumber. British Montgomery “Monty” Toft, father of the bride, is a retired Colonel. Monty is the very stoic Brit and Pete is the crass American. They are meeting in Toft's garden the day after a night of too much late-night drinking.
MONTY: "Was it so late, friend, that you went to bed that you do lie so late"?
PETE: Say what?
MONTY: The Bard of Avon, dear chap.
PETE: Avon, like cosmetics?
This is the first of the battle of the colloquialisms. Wardrobe vs. cupboard. Flip-phone vs. smartphone. Cafetière vs. French press. Tin vs. can. WC vs. bathroom.
Esposito and Toft are two fathers who feel “superfluous” to the day’s events. While the wedding party is at the rehearsal, they have left the fathers to erect a “gazebo” (Toft's word) or “tent” (Esposito’s word). Toft has purchased this kit so feels that it is his responsibility to separate and organise all the pieces and put them together. He was not prepared for instructions that are in Chinese. Plumber Esposito looks at the pieces with a “how hard can it be” attitude. Toft abandons the task to Esposito.
As the afternoon progresses and the two dads erect the “tent”, the testosterone will be abandoned; we and they will learn how men, during these quiet, intimate moments, can reveal themselves as human beings: flawed and heroic. They spend the rest of the time volleying words while revealing themselves.
MONTY: ...in a few hours we’re gonna officially be... in-laws!
They will go back to their macho differences, but they will always have this moment.
For Pete (Brian Dykstra) and Monty (Tim Marriott), there is more than an ocean that separates their lives and more than children that will bring them together. Underneath the jockeying for footing, these two men assume a mutual respect which will lead them to a kind of friendship. A Special Relationship has mined for every idiom and character difference. It’s fun to watch these very capable actors handle the well-placed sitcom humour with the sharpest of timing while taking on the day's challenges.
Director Margarett Perry with a subtle touch lets her actors play while she keeps the action moving.
The script by Tim Marriott and Jeff Stolzer (as the British and American voices, respectively) is unrelentingly funny; we can hardly catch our breath. But these very poignant moments between these two men are diluted by this razor-sharp banter of competing differences. There is a phrase used by the Brits, "too clever for their own good", that seems appropriate here.
This is a very funny evening about our similarities and our differences.