Like most nerd girls, this Phillyist admits to harboring a honking crush on one John Krasinski, normally seen mugging his way through scenes on NBC's The Office and now...er, mugging his way through scenes in Warner Brothers' License to Wed opposite Mandy Moore and Robin Williams.

That said, this Phillyist also harbors a certain trepidation towards:
1) Romantic comedies about weddings and misunderstandings.
2) Mandy Moore. (We're really sorry, Mandy. We're sure you're terribly sweet and we loved you in Saved! but the whole Zach Braff thing is going to take us a while to get over.)
3) Robin Williams in pretty much any way, shape or form.

Obviously, you can see why we walked into License to Wed with a slightly nervous and queasy feeling in the pit of our stomach. We needn't have worried. Krasinski took all of our concerns, made a face at them, and then wandered through the entire movie with a befuddled air of nice-guy bemusement. Then he threw some dick jokes in there, and we were perfectly happy.

It's hard to overestimate how much this movie is Krasinski's to make or break: he's in nearly every scene, and most of the jokes rely either on his delivery, reaction, or, in one case, an incredibly hilarious and slapsticky fall through a window. He handles it all with aplomb, and we're not joking when we say this kid is the next big thing. Remember, you heard it here first!

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Robin Williams has apparently learned how to back off and share scenes with other actors, as well. We were dreading sitting through a movie in which Robin Williams plays a wacky reverend putting engaged couples through zany tests to prove their love to himself and to each other. Franky, anything involving the words 'zany', 'wacky,' or 'Robin Williams' is normally enough to make us run screaming for the hills. We're not sure what director Ken Kwapis gave Williams to get him to tone down the manic long enough to make his scenes funny instead of excruciating, and in some cases, even... dare we say it... understated? (Well, understated for Williams.)

The weak link of the movie, and through no real fault of her own, is Mandy Moore's character Sadie. She's engaged to marry Krasinski's Ben, and decides that she wants to be married by her family's minister (Williams). When the only wedding dates available to the couple are either three weeks away or two years away, she rushes ahead of the discussion and chooses three weeks, leading Sadie and Ben into three weeks of completely crazed tests and exercises led by the Rev. Frank. Really, Moore's character is just a point for Krasinski and Williams to revolve around. She's rarely sympathetic - Krasinski's Ben holds sympathy throughout - and rarely becomes anything more than a footnote in scenes. We're never given any reason to understand why Moore's Sadie makes the decisions she makes, or why she's blindly following the Rev. Frank down his increasingly nutty trail. That's partially because Moore just doesn't have the chops to hold her own with Krasinski in the reaction department - Krasinski can (and does) go through about twelve emotions in one three-second shot - and partially because the writers just don't seem to care about fleshing out her character.

If you're looking for a cute and funny date movie to see while hiding from the endless summer blockbusters (Pirates! Ogres! Transformers! Wizards! Bruce Willis!), check License to Wed out, if only so you can say you saw Krasinski from the very beginning. Trust us. It's worth it.