Let’s be honest here, we are all stuck at home with little else to do but sit in front of the television and scroll endlessly through streaming services and Netflix certainly knows what they are doing by pumping out new content on a seemingly weekly basis. One of their newest film releases is romantic comedy Love, Wedding, Repeat starring Poldark stars Eleonor Tomlinson and Jack Farthing, and whilst most were excited to see this one after a rather promising trailer, I have to admit that it didn’t quite meet my expectations.
Love, Wedding, Repeat tells the story of Jack (Sam Clafin) facing a number of challenges in order to make sure that his sister Hayley’s (Tomlinson) wedding day goes off without a hitch. But this isn’t the normal ‘get me to the church on time’ situation, no, he has to contend with an obsessive ex-boyfriend (Farthing), his own ex, a troublesome best man and the girl who got away turning up out of the blue. Add in a little mix up with some strong sleeping pills and it’s a recipe for disaster, and should really be a recipe for comedy, but it falls rather flat.
Whilst the characters are likable enough, they aren’t really that interesting, and I struggled to invest in any of their stories other than Jack. Sam Clafin somehow manages to make the character believable within the chaos and in places, you are able to feel for this character, but the story is over complicated and drawn out from start to finish. If things were not complex enough with the sleep pill mix up and everything else that Jack has to deal with, more than halfway through the film they suddenly through in a butterfly effect moment and travel back in time. Yeah, I was confused too.
This film feels like lots of rom-com stereotypes mixed together, the long time single friend desperate to find someone at a mate’s wedding, the strange ex-boyfriend who simply cannot let go, the best man who can’t get the speech right and the desperation to please the groom’s extended family. I feel as if it could have worked if it had only been put together better, and if the script hadn’t been so overcomplicated, not to mention the strange decision to use a narration throughout. Whilst some characters such as ex-boyfriend Marc and best man Bryan (Joel Fry) were given plenty of screen time, other characters flitted in and out with little to no backstory. The story is stretched out, meaning that it is all too easy to lose interest as the timeline bumbles backwards and forwards with very little explanation. The whole butterfly effect thing feels completely unnecessary, it feels almost as if the writers simply ran out of original ideas and thought ‘oh let’s go with this, it will be alright’. Well, I am sorry to say but it really wasn’t.
There are some good people in this, and they are really trying with what they are given, but let’s be honest, they weren’t really given much. Eleonor Tomlinson’s blushing bride Hayley has her faults, well she has many, but she should be likable all the same, but a lack of character development leaves the character feeling rather dull and at some points annoying. Aisling Bea plays Rebecca, and whilst she can be funny at times, the character is brushed aside and left with very little to do, as is Tim Key’s Sydney. There are many characters who are left with so little development or back story that you start to wonder as to why they are there at all as they add nothing to the plot.
The trailer may have looked promising, painting the film as an easy going rom-com with a good cast, but sorry Netflix, you missed the mark with this one.