The Wedding Year

Mara (Sarah Hyland) is a single gal in L.A. She works in a clothing boutique for Ellie (Anna Camp). Alex is her gay best friend. She goes on a date with Jake (Tyler James Williams) and it goes very well. Her sister Jessica (Jenna Dewan) is getting married despite their parents' disaster marriage. It's the start of an avalanche of wedding invitations for both her and Jake. They have a drinking game to whittle down the list to seven.

I love the cast. I love both of the leads. I want the best for them and they are both extremely likeable TV sitcom actors. The writer writes mostly for TV sitcoms. The director has made a couple of fine rom-coms earlier in his career. The problem is that the comedy doesn't always reach high enough. They need a wacky best friend. As for the central romantic conflict, it's not that well drawn out. Ellie's wedding is one of the funniest part of the movie. Mara's family gathering makes no sense. Her parents would never be in the same room together unless they intend to fight to the death. Jake's religious family comes out of nowhere although the cheese burger is a funny bit. I really want to love this movie but it doesn't have enough.

The movie felt a bit quick, cheap, so expected comedy .. It would have probably looked better as a 20 minutes of Everybody Hates Chris and Modern Family Mashup episode ... lol

Anyway,, the story is simple ,, easy to follow and sometimes that is not good at all .. the script supposed to be a Rom-Com and it surprisingly lacked both ,, both lead have seemed to be trying so hard to but apparently the screenplay didn't help... The acting was convincing I gotta give them that, but the story overall was just plain.

Anyway, If you felt like you really have the zeal to watch a rom-com and there's nothing on theater ,, this would make a kinda meh TV movie watch.

This is a perfect example of why I started watching K-Drama! It is by far so much more romantic, more fun, more humorous, more interesting, better scripting, the whole 9 yards better. This short 1 1/2 hr movie was so boring I found myself daydreaming (not about weddings!) a couple of times as they went through the story of each wedding (the leading lady kept getting wedding invitations in the mail and of course she wasn't married yet). Such a worn out theme to begin with, then of course Netflix has to always have the mixed couple, the gay wedding, etc, - not saying anything wrong with it, but it is so predictable for Netflix. Of course you know what the ending is going to be all along - the whole thing is just boring. I very rarely give a negative review, but just can't help it this time.

I think a lot of these reviews are very harsh. I went into this movie expecting a light & fun rom com and that is exactly what I got. I think the leads do a great job of highlighting each other. Also if you listen to any review that includes the words "chick movie"...yikes.

What a fun little movie with a creative structure. It has a few tired tropes, but what rom-com doesn't? It's a cute, enjoyable comedy about love and weddings, and it doesn't need to be anything more than that.