Consider it a blind date to the extreme: "Monsoon Wedding"

Let's get one thing straight: I have no bias against foreign films. Canada has produced plenty of amazing movies ...

OK, OK ... really, I've seen and enjoyed plenty of movies I've had to read, whether it's "Crouching Tiger" or "Run, Lola, Run." But I never could get pumped up about "Monsoon Wedding" when it was in theaters, no matter how my Indian (dot, not feather) culture-loving wife raved about it. If I recall correctly, it came out at the same time as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and I have room for only one ethnic nuptials flick a year.

Alas, "Monsoon Wedding" popped up on IFC, and the eagle-eyed missus TiVoed it for when she could handcuff me to the sofa and make me watch this generally well-received movie. The verdict: All right, I guess, but I wasn't exactly kicking myself for not seeing it earlier.

The plot is pretty simple. A family in New Delhi prepares for a young woman's arranged marriage to an Indian man now living in the U.S. There's a little bit of the culture clash, but mostly the film focuses on a few different love stories -- the bride and another man, the (male) wedding planner and a servant girl and a couple of young people playing smaller wedding roles.

This sets up some sweet scenes and some tense ones, and the script has its fair share of humor. I actually finished watching this after my own wife fell asleep, so it clearly wasn't bad. But I suspect a big reason for this movie's popularity was the Indian aspect, and that doesn't grab me as much as it does others (see the aforementioned missus, who reads a new Indian book every few months). Sure, the clothes, henna and music are nice, but so what? Take that away, and you've got a nice ensemble in a feel-good movie -- decent, but really all that?

Maybe I'm just being a grump, since the movie was OK. But so was the cultural stuff of "Bend it Like Beckham," as well as the lesser-known "East is East." And besides, it's not a real wedding without an awkward best man's toast. "I remember when Hemant first met Aditi ... three days ago! HA HA HA HA HA!!!"