In Jenny’s Wedding, the act of coming out is not about self-discovery—it’s about rebuilding the world around you. Directed by Mary Agnes Donoghue, this quietly emotional film turns away from first-love tropes and instead examines what happens after love is found: when two women decide to marry, and their families must decide what love really means.
Jenny (Katherine Heigl) comes from a conventional Midwestern family who believes in good manners, Sunday church, and “normal” life. To her parents, she’s a successful adult daughter with a stable job and—presumably—a secret boyfriend. In reality, Jenny has been living openly as a lesbian for years, except within her own family.
When she finally announces her plan to marry her longtime partner, Kitty (Alexis Bledel), the perfect image of domestic order collapses. Her mother is horrified, her father feels betrayed, and her siblings find themselves caught in between love and discomfort. What follows is a painful, sometimes tender unraveling of what “family acceptance” really looks like.
Rather than following the usual romantic beats, Jenny’s Wedding focuses on the reactions—how parents, siblings, and even neighbors struggle to adjust their definitions of love and respect. For Jenny, coming out becomes not a confession, but a confrontation—with denial, pride, and the deep longing to be seen.
Jenny’s Wedding Cast
Charactor
A confident yet cautious woman ready to marry the woman she loves, but terrified of her family’s judgment.
Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl, known for Grey’s Anatomy and Knocked Up, offers one of her most grounded performances—stripping away glamor for quiet sincerity.
Jenny’s long-term partner, calm, steadfast, and radiant in her quiet defiance.
Alexis Bledel
Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls, The Handmaid’s Tale) brings emotional subtlety and softness, making Kitty the emotional anchor of the film.
A loving yet conflicted father who must confront his own biases and grief.
Tom Wilkinson
Wilkinson’s performance is tender and human, embodying the pain of love caught between pride and understanding.
Director
Mary Agnes Donoghue
Mary Agnes Donoghue is an American screenwriter and director best known for exploring emotional honesty and complex female relationships. Before Jenny’s Wedding, she wrote Beaches (1988), one of Hollywood’s most enduring stories of friendship and love. With Jenny’s Wedding, Donoghue shifted her focus to LGBTQ+ family dynamics, bringing warmth and realism to the struggles of coming out and finding acceptance. Her style balances gentle humor with quiet emotional depth, showing that even the most traditional families can learn to change.
BEST SCENES
📍 The film’s most emotional moment arrives when Jenny’s father admits, “I’m hurt,” his voice trembling not from anger but confusion. It’s a rare, honest portrayal of a parent realizing that acceptance takes time. The scene reframes coming out not as rebellion, but as a shared act of vulnerability.
Jenny’s Wedding Review
Review
This isn’t the romantic story I expected—it’s not about how Jenny and Kitty fall in love, but about how their love challenges everything around them. And maybe that’s the point.
The film explores what happens after the fairytale—after the “I love you” and before the “I do.” It shows how family identity, community norms, and religion collide when two women simply ask to be treated like any other couple. Jenny’s Wedding might follow a familiar formula, but it lands with sincerity and warmth.
Katherine Heigl’s performance gives Jenny both vulnerability and quiet strength. Her partner Kitty, played by Alexis Bledel, radiates calm assurance—the soft brightness in her eyes a contrast to Jenny’s inner turmoil. Their chemistry is subtle but believable; there’s tenderness in the way Kitty steadies Jenny’s fear without demanding perfection.
What stands out most isn’t the romance, but the emotional honesty of the parents’ reaction. When Jenny’s mother lashes out at nosy neighbors, or when her father quietly admits, “I’m hurt,” the film captures something deeply real—the way love can wound before it heals.
As someone watching from a culture still wrestling with acceptance, I couldn’t help but think of what “coming out” means in different worlds. In many Asian families, filial duty and face weigh heavily; children grow up learning to hide pain rather than cause it. Coming out, then, is never just personal—it’s intergenerational. Parents must go through the same stages of denial, grief, and acceptance as their children once did.
That’s why this story resonates: it understands that coming out is not one person’s journey—it’s a family’s transformation. The film may be conventional in form, but its compassion feels earned. And in its quieter moments—when Jenny’s father sits wordlessly at the table, when Kitty’s music swells with Mary Lambert’s “She Keeps Me Warm”—the emotions ring true.
Jenny’s Wedding Information
Film Festival Recognition
🎥 Official Selection – Los Angeles Film Festival (2015)
🌈 GLAAD Media Award Nominee – Outstanding Film (Limited Release)
🎶 Featured soundtrack includes Mary Lambert – “She Keeps Me Warm”, a modern queer anthem that perfectly mirrors the film’s warmth and sincerity.