The People We Hate at the Wedding

Talk about contrived? Yikes! "Eloise" (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) makes the cardinal error of inviting her estranged and dysfunctional family to London for her posh wedding. Her brother "Paul" (Ben Platt) and his boyfriend "Dominic" (Karan Soni); her unpredictable and unreliable sister "Alice" (Kristen Bell) who is having an affair with her married, architect, boss and finally her mother "Donna" (Allison Janney). It seems that they all pretty much loathe each other in equal measure, but they all decide to attend and in so doing "Alice" hooks up with the handsome "Dennis" (Dustin Milligan - probably the only decent person in the whole thing) with the others going through the usual relationship tribulations that, aside from a fun scene in a Thames-side inflatable champagne dinghy - rarely raise even the faintest hint of a smile. What Miss Janney is doing in this is anyone's guess, and without a song to sing I am afraid that Platt is just, well flat! I think the trick with good comedy is having characters that we can at least like. I struggled here with all of them before the ending that could have been seen by a blind man from outer space. The soundtrack is quite good now and again, but otherwise the writing and direction offer us nothing at all new here and it almost left me wishing for Henry Golding's equally lacklustre Christmas effort from 2019!

Allison Janney has been nominated for and won so many awards over the past 30 years that it takes a separate, linked Wikipedia entry just to list them all. For her mere presence in this movie I must give this movie an extra star on its rating. And Kristen Bell, of Veronica Mars and Frozen fame (and all the ensemble & supporting roles in both TV & movies that she's had in between), isn't exactly chopped liver, y'know. So then why isn't this made-for-streaming movie better than it is? Honestly, I'm not sure. But if you're a big fan of these women (as I am), or of the young Tony-winning star of "Dear Evan Hansen," it's still worth the 99-minute investment to watch.

We started this movie at the suggestion of the NYT, but after about 25 minutes we looked at each other and said, "Haven't laughed yet." Kristen Bell is cute and Allison Janney has her comedy chops, but this mish-mash is so disjointed and so reliant on cheap sex situations that we gave up and turned on the news. None of the characters were sympathetic and the opening sequences were so truncated and unclear that we found ourselves wondering who was who and why they mattered. It's too bad. The premise seemed to have great possibilities. Maybe it gets better by the end but where we stopped it seemed pointless.

This movie is one incoherent scene full of people who don't even remotely act like real people after another. Ben Platt and Kristen Bell are absolutely insufferable and made me actively angry. There's almost no explanation for how awful these characters are or why they hate their sister for no reason. This isn't an Always Sunny in Philadelphia situation where it's entertaining watching awful people do awful things, it's more so I want to rip my eyeballs out and extract the memory of this wretched pain from my brain. Also, this has some of the most egregiously disgusting product placement I've ever seen. It's like watching that fake Korean Subway tv show from John Oliver.

This was a truly horrible experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Please avoid this like the plague.

Okay, Streamers, we have a lot of family movies coming out around this time. Studios are putting out their Christmas fare early. There are those romantic comedies and so many other films that are supposed to appeal to broad audiences as the families get together for the holidays. Amazon released on Prime Video a family comedy based on a novel with the same name, The People We Hate at the Wedding. Here's how the wedding bells tolled.

I'm going to be honest, friends. I don't want to waste my time writing a review of The People We Hate at the Wedding. It is such a nothing movie that I don't even want to write the premise. Fine - Alice (Kristen Bell) and Paul (Ben Platt) travel to their estranged, half-sister, Eloise's (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) wedding in England. Alice and Paul are American and are struggling in their personal and professional lives while Eloise grew up in England and seemingly leads a posh and perfect existence. Alice, Paul and their mother, Donna (Allison Janney), who is also Eloise's mother, go to the wedding begrudgingly. Disastrous hijinks ensue.

Actually, that synopsis was too long for this bland, unfunny movie. Everything you think will happen from the set up happens. Sorry to spoil it for you, Streamers. The worst part of the movie is that even though it is predictable, it could at least be funny but it's NOT. I like Kristen Bell, Ben Platt and Allison Janney. None of them can save this movie. Allison Janney does the best of those three, but she really doesn't have much to do either. The title of the movie gives you a clue that you will dislike these people, but there's really no redeeming value in them anyway. So, what's the point.

Ultimately, The People We Hate at the Wedding is not a good movie. It is pretty boring and definitely not funny. You could have this playing in the background during Thanksgiving dinner because you don't have to pay attention to it to know exactly what's going on and what's going to happen. Yep, this is definitely only a one popped kernel, but only because I can't say it's awful.