Love, Wedding, Repeat

Starring: Sam Claflin, Olivia Munn, Eleanor Tomlinson, Joel Fry, Freida Pinto, Aisling Bea, Tim Key, Jack Farthing, Allan Mustafa, Tiziano Caputo, Paolo Mazzarelli

Director: Dean Craig

Based on the film Plan de table written by Francis Nief

Everyone has gathered in Italy to celebrate the wedding of Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Roberto (Tiziano Caputo). Hayley's brother Jack (Sam Claflin) is hoping to reconnect with her American friend Dina (Olivia Munn), who he shared a fun weekend with three years prior. Unfortunately for Jack, his ex Amanda (Freida Pinto) is also going to be in attendance with her potential fiancé Chaz (Allan Mustafa), who isn't able to hide his jealousy due to thinking Amanda still has feelings for Jack. Meanwhile, Jack's friend and Hayley's "Man of Honor" Bryan (Joel Fry), an aspiring actor, is worried about giving a toast during the reception because famous Italian director Vitelli (Paolo Mazzarelli) is there and he is hoping to be cast in his next movie. Although the ceremony goes off without a hitch, Hayley gets worried when she sees Marc (Jack Farthing), who was not invited due to his not so secret love of Hayley. Marc has his drug addled eyes set on breaking off the wedding. Hijinks ensue as Jack must try to balance reconnecting with Dina and help Hayley keep Marc from ruining her happy day.

A remake of a 2012 French film, this fails as both a romance and a comedy, not giving the audience enough to root for any of the potential romantic entanglements or being all that funny. In fact, I don't remember even emitting a slight chuckle during the film's entire run time. Instead of laughter, I just cringed. It felt like the film desperately wanted to be Death at a Funeral, which was able to find a balance between character and laughs despite taking place at a funeral. Here, there are an unfortunate abundance of "jokes" that feel like a teen wrote them. Take the character Chaz, who spends the whole movie worried that Amanda won't say yes to his proposal because she thinks Jack's endowment is larger than his and him trying to convince her otherwise. I do remember finally laughing at something but it's telling that it came during the closing credits.

Despite not featuring a likable character, the cast itself features likable actors doing their best to be funny. In fact, if the film had decided on a main character whose eyes we see the story through, it could have really helped. Claflin's Jack is the closest and while he and Munn do have some chemistry, better writing would have helped their attempted romance be a good centerpiece. We don't even see much if anything of their time together three years prior, so it's hard to be invested in them as a romantic couple. Instead, the movie spreads its focus on a ton of annoying and not well developed characters and the pacing suffered for it.

The "Repeat" aspect of the title is baffling and is the film's biggest missed opportunity. Towards the beginning, a narrator dubbed "The Oracle" tells us that the seating at a wedding has the potential to have many different outcomes depending on how the placement falls. About an hour into the runtime (and with about 30 or so minutes left), the movie resets after things go terribly. Up until this point, there was no hint at this possibility of a new timeline and the film is now set up for its expected rom-com ending. The film could have been more interesting had it played with this idea and given us more outcomes to enjoy. It's as if the writers wrote themselves into a corner and instead of restarting the script they restarted the movie.

I think I have harsher feelings towards the film because it had the potential to be so much more. Instead, we are saddled with a rom-com filled with underdeveloped characters and too much juvenile humor that only it thinks is funny.

Grade: D

Love Wedding Repeat is available on Netflix.