My Wife's Relations

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Nick M Circumstances align to hoodwink Keaton into a marriage with an unlikely bride, who takes him home to her large family of mostly brutish brothers. He tries to fit in, but they do nothing but walk all over him until they find a smudged letter that leads them to the mistaken conclusion that he is rich. As a scenario, My Wife's Relations doesn't ever fully come together. Rather than developing the narrative, the picture relies on the old playbook of cheap slapstick routines that played to the taste of the least sophisticated segments of the cinema-going public, with little for anyone hoping for artistry or innovation. The lone laugh it got from me was when they were taking a family portrait, and the tripod slowly splayed itself until the camera was sitting on the floor. As it sinks, the family begins lowering themselves along with it until they're all laying down in what was supposed to have been a dignified picture. Watching this after his previous work in Cops - it's hard not to be disappointed. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/10/25 Full Review sean l Buster Keaton was often one to draw creative inspiration from his personal life. Frequently his love life, which was stormy and dramatic. Here's one such example: he married his first wife in 1921, and within a year he produced this short film, about a well-meaning sucker who's torn from his happy livelihood by a sudden marriage and an abhorrent set of greedy, oafish in-laws. The fictional version involves four large, bumbling brothers, as contrasted by his real bride's two sisters (all successful actresses), but it doesn't take much effort to read between the lines. In this case, unfortunately, the personal connection doesn't result in many laughs. Buster is unjustly abused and exploited, despite his best efforts to make nice and blend in. Even when those good intentions don't backfire, his craftiness occasionally trumping his overwhelming bad luck, he's barely given a pat on the head before catching the persona non grata tag again and the whole dance begins anew. It all culminates in a desperate chase, as many of Keaton's capers seem to, this one through a posh mansion and across the crowded roadways just outside. That's the sizzle of the film, another example of the expressive star's knack for repurposing everyday objects in acrobatic new ways, but it's brief and inconclusive. Satisfying climaxes sometimes seem optional in these brief comedies, but this one ends far more abruptly than most. Almost as if its star hadn't yet found an answer to his own similar, private entanglement. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Not my favorite, but some good moments of Keaton outsmarting those around him. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Keaton mistakenly get married to a horrid woman and must deal with her brothers as well living under the same roof. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member While a decent film, My Wife's Relations didn't deliver as many laughs as many of Keaton's other shorts. Still, seeing Buster try to live with his new family is amusing. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review eric b The humor is mostly just slapstick pratfalls and punches, but it's still funny. Not much cleverness in play, beyond the initial premise that sets up Buster accidentally marrying an incompatible stranger. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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