Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love Wedding Repeat’ on Netflix, a British Rom-Com With a Gimmick (And the Usual Spate of Wacky Characters)

The title of Netflix movie Love Wedding Repeat sounds like what we movie critics write every time we see yet another derivative rom-com about people getting married and the wacky guests who give wacky speeches at wacky receptions. But this one — writer/director Dean Craig’s Anglicized version of 2012 French film Plan de table — offers something different, a something different that I won’t reveal lest I be sacked by the Huns of the internet. So does this film offer a fresh iteration of an old formula, or just repeat the same old love-wedding stuff?

LOVE WEDDING REPEAT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: THE COSMOS. A female British narrator makes some grandiose statements about the State of the Universe, peppering them with obscenities, which is possibly “funny” because, unless I’m mistaken, it’s the voice of an uncredited Maggie Smith, or someone with similar stately tones, which clash mightily when they’re used to say things like “shitter” and “tits up.” Cut to Jack (Sam Claflin), a nice guy. So nice, it does him no good whatsoever. We first see him in Rome, where he’s just enjoyed an amazing weekend with Dina (Olivia Munn). He’s about to confess his love to her, likely with reciprocation, when an old friend interrupts them, and he’s too nice to tell the guy to bugger off so he can kiss this marvelous woman. Jack and Dina part, unfulfilled.

Three years pass, during which Jack and Dina are apparently too stupid even to text each other. Jack is officially Here For His Sister, Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson), who’s getting married in Rome, today, right now. As these things go, their mildly motley group of friends is dressed up and in attendance: “Maid” of honor Bryan (Joel Fry), generic but mildly funny woman Rebecca (Aisling Bea), awkward dork in a kilt Sidney (Tim Key) and Jack’s bitchy ex Amanda (Freida Pinto) and her insecure boyfriend Chaz (Allan Mustafa). And of course Dina is there, freshly single and, of course, stunning in both presentation and between the ears, luminously gleaming in the Italian sun, exploding with beauty and intelligence, and just generally being the type of confident and attractive person that inspires in Jack a rather charming and positively Hugh Grantian stammer.

And then arrives unannounced and uninvited a ticking time bomb named Marc (Jack Farthing), the bride’s ex, extremely coked up and carrying a potentially plot-derailing secret. Hayley flips out, and asks Jack to dope Marc with her prescription sedative so he won’t turn her wedding day into the Battle of Gallipoli. He reluctantly agrees, finds Marc’s assigned seat at the reception table and dribbles the liquid roofie in the champagne glass. BUT. A bunch of chaos-agent kids run into the room and move the namecards around, and Maggie Smith But Maybe Not Maggie Smith butts in with some quasi-profound blahblahblah about chance and probability and exponential math and crap, setting the table for a main course of stupefyingly astonishing developments to come.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I hope I’m not saying too much by reducing Love Wedding Repeat to an amalgam of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sliding Doors.

Performance Worth Watching: There’s easy, tangible chemistry between Claflin and Munn, who are enjoyable to watch during the movie’s few — very few — non-hysterical moments. Munn, who effortlessly shifts between earnest and comic tones, is especially strong.

Memorable Dialogue: Opening lines, via narrator: “A wise person once said about love: We live in a universe that’s ruled by chaos and chance. But all it takes is just one moment of ill fortune for all our hopes and dreams to go right down the shitter.”

Sex and Skin: Just some makin’ out.

Our Take: Love Wedding Repeat is the type of movie that lives and dies by its cast, and Craig coaxes pretty good performances from a relatively eager ensemble. They make the movie watchable and mildly funny despite the material, which is lousy with stale wedding-flick chestnuts and miscellaneous predictable circumstances. I’ll remain vague by saying the gimmick involves shuffling cliches like a deck of cards, and it’s functional, if uninspired. Its suspense stems less from the will-the-wedding-go-kablooey plot, more from our anticipation for scenes between Munn and Claflin, whose consummatory declarations are delayed and interrupted and derailed and obstructed like a running joke.

I wasn’t offended by any of this, maybe a touch bored here and there, but many of the characters arouse the occasional amused smirk. These people aren’t so terrible to hang out with, and it’s therefore easy to wish the best for them. I’ve said many less-nice things about rom-coms like this before, so maybe lightly perspicacious featherweight comedy isn’t so bad within the context of pandemic-inspired forced isolationism. It’s also kinda cute sometimes!

Our Call: STREAM IT. Love Wedding Repeat doesn’t break the rom-com mold — but frankly, our expectations for these type of movies shouldn’t be that high to begin with.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Love Wedding Repeat on Netflix