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THE WEDDING YEAR
Director: Robert Luketic Cast: Sarah Hyland, Tyler James Williams, Matt Shively, Anna Camp, Jenna Dewan MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:30 Release Date: 9/20/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 19, 2019 Mara (Sarah Hyland), the protagonist of The Wedding Year, is an unsympathetic mess. Her apartment is a shambles. Her attitude and outlook on life are toxic. Her driving, distracted and/or reckless, makes us surprised that she doesn't kill someone within the first five minutes of the movie. Screenwriter Donald Diego and director Robert Luketic, though, really want us to like her, because Mara is scared to move forward with her dream of becoming photographer and to commit to a romantic relationship. They also want us to like Mara because she's the heroine of a generic, formulaic romantic comedy. She has to fall in love, go through the motions of whatever gimmick Diego has devised, find herself in the midst of a seemingly untenable problem with the relationship, and arrive at a happily-ever-after ending. The one thing filmmakers shouldn't want us to be thinking during such a story is that the protagonist probably deserves to be alone. The one thought we shouldn't be having during the first meeting of the romantic leads is that one of them should run—very quickly and very far away. That's the case, though, when Mara meets Jake (Tyler James Williams), with whom she has connected in order to get a free meal out of someone on an online dating app (Yes, the meet-cute here is a selfish scam). They fall for each other anyway, and then the pair are individually invited to over a dozen weddings. Even though Mara fears that a year's worth of weddings with a guy will mean that she's in a committed relationship, she agrees to go to seven with Jake. Most of this involves gags at the assorted weddings, receptions, and various meals. Mara imagines she's having an intense dance-off with one of Jake's ex-girlfriends. Another has her giving an egotistical speech for the newlyweds when the entire wedding party comes down with a case of food poisoning. Meanwhile, Mara keeps looking for a reason to sabotage her relationship with the unaware Jake, confiding in her cliché of a gay best friend Alex (Matt Shively) along the way. The whole thing, from the gags to the plotting, is lazy and routine, but we have come to expect and, in certain circumstances, can even forgive at least half of those qualities. What can't be forgiven, though, is that The Wedding Year has a terrible, wholly unlikeable protagonist. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for language, some sexual content and drug/alcohol use)
