#AllanMustafa

[adamwatchesmovies]

Love Wedding Repeat (2020)

Love Wedding Repeat only had one novel thing going for it. Had this been done right, the movie might’ve been saved but writer/director Dean Craig botches it completely. With no laughs, no romance, cliches upon cliches, and characters you don’t even love to hate, this movie struggles - and fails - to validate its existence.

At his sister Hayley’s wedding, Jack (Sam Claflin) is allowed to reconnect with “the one that got away”. He and Dina (Olivia Munn) are seated at the same table but so is his nightmare of an ex-girlfriend (Freida Pinto), her new man (Allan Mustafa), socially inept Sidney (Tim Key), the man/maid of honor who is more concerned with launching his acting career than helping the bride (Joel Fry), his ex-girlfriend and -worst of all - Hayley’s stalker, a coke-head named Marc (Jack Farthing).

This is another rom-com that asks us to cheer for a wet noodle of a protagonist. Jack had his shot with Dina but he didn’t think of calling her or keeping in touch during the three years they were apart. He didn’t care enough to put in the effort so why should we care about this "couple" now?

Everyone at the reception is beholden to idiotic rules no one in the real world would follow and they’re all too obsessed with themselves to be endearing. When Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson) discovers Marc, she doesn’t try to kick him out. She asks her brother to knock him out with sleeping pills while giving him a spot at the same table as her brother and maid of honor. Then, runaway children switch the seats around, the spiked glass of champagne is given to the wrong person and all the couples are "broken up" by the new arrangement and drama ensues. Hystericals should too, theoretically. Instead, you grow frustrated. Come on Jack. You had THREE YEARS to get Dina. You can’t set aside your feelings for a day to deal with Marc? Bryan hasn’t even written a speech for his “best friend” and with only hours left before he must offer words of encouragement and he doesn't even care.

You'll wish you'd been given sleeping pills after hearing the jokes this movie has to offer. Look at Sidney, a man who - for no reason - has decided to wear a kilt to the wedding. He keeps complaining that the unfamiliar garment is too tight around the crotch (how?) and has to repeatedly adjust himself. He’s no one's friend. He doesn’t speak Italian so he can’t be a guest of Hayley’s husband. Why is he even there?

Up until about 20 minutes to the end, Love Wedding Repeat does NOTHING new. Then, a twist. We’ve seen this disastrous scenario play out when suddenly, the omniscient narrator (Penny Ryder) asks us “but what if the names had been re-arranged this way instead?” The film then rewinds and presents a different course of events, the “right” one. This gimmick is set up early on, but why? We only see two scenarios so you know the second one will end happily. You learn nothing about the characters. All you get is more of your time wasted.

Love Wedding Repeat is well shot but the script and story are worthless. It’s the kind of movie you’ll dislike all the way through and then forget within days, leaving you full of negativity that's got nowhere to go. The end credit deleted scenes don't help. (February 12, 2021)