Wedding

In theory it seemed like a good idea. 

In another theory - it seemed like it had all been done before. 

People We Hate at the Wedding - an amazon prime movie - is a pretty much paint-by-numbers wedding movie, down to the estrangement of siblings and parents and children. Even the "will you be my date, even though I don't know you, to the wedding fiasco" is in play. 

Like I said about my dinner the other night:  they can't all be winners. 

But you know, Allison Janney and Kristen Bell. I clearly saw them as the, "well if they're in it, maybe it's better than the rest that have already done this".  

It's not. 

Like Statler & Waldorf, on the Muppet Show said about a skit about a psychic:  they rated it 'a medium' because it is not rare and it wasn't well done. 

Oddly, for me, the mundaneness isn't what is in the story, but what's not. The estrangement origin isn't revealed to well close to the end of the movie and it is all something that, while I'm sure personal, could have been resolved with one phone call. Or an email. Possibly even a text.  So something blown so far out of proportion for the entire premise of the movie in the first place - you think you'd put more thought into that while doing the script. 

Script. Ha.  I saw this was adapted from a book !!!  You know when people say the book is better than the movie. In this case, I'm assuming it to be true.  I am not going out on a limb to say it's probably a good book though. 

Janney and Bell are fine with what they're given. Ben Platt?  Eh, he has his moments, but he's no better here than he was in the first Pitch Perfect movie. The phrase "Oscar winner", is never going to precede his name. Ted, the veterinarian from Schitt's Creek, is the would-be-would-you-be-my-wedding-date character and possibly the most formed one at that in the entire movie. 

Even the bride - a half-sister of Platt and Bell - has that slight cringe in her first scene, silently showing a hint of doubt on the wedding. And the tried-and-true 'the bride is missing, so let's go to the people who haven't seen her in years, in a town in which they don't live, to find her...................and they DO!' scene. And with product placement!  While Bridesmaids did something similar, at least they didn't have a fast food tie-in. 

Even with the movie title and a discussion while being held by the police, the main characters seem to get 'they'll be talked about later', but never seem to realize they are the ones who are hated at the wedding. 

2023 Movie Count / Goal: 04 of 15

Song by: Psychedelic Furs