Daughter of the Bride

It's hard to believe this movie actually got made. There's not an original scene in the entire film, the lead is terrible and the film is shamelessly derivative of other films. Sadly this is the type of movie that needed AI to turn into something watchable. Clearly the producers thought it was enough to have Marcia Gay Harden and Aiden Quinn to prop up this embarrassing excuse for a romantic comedy, but good actors cannot save a script with more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese, along with an awful lead actress, and unimaginative directing. I cannot believe I wasted $3.99 on this. By the way, Hallmark made a movie with the same plot years ago and it's hard to believe the writer so shamelessly copied it, made it worse, and then got it made.

Kate (Halston Sage) is a cater waiter with no steady boyfriend. She's close to her mother Diane (Marcia Gay Harden), but she dislikes the new boyfriend Bruce (Aidan Quinn) even though she's the one who initially selected him. She almost runs over Josh (Andrew Richardson) and it's love-hate right from the start.

At first, I assumed this to be a Hallmark movie and then I noticed the veteran actors. I don't know what this is aiming for. The production is not good enough for a theatrical release, but it should be one based on the actors. The writing is derivative and wrong. I don't understand Kate's issue with Bruce. It would make more sense if she's not the one who sets them up. She could be jealous of Bruce's new relationship with her mother. That would be a fine premise and make Josh be Bruce's son. With that, the story writes itself. The wedding gown has good comedic potential and I would like to see Halston Sage try more physical comedy. This movie is all potential and no execution.

This is bad... really bad. We lasted a little over an hour, although to be honest, we did start questioning whether to turn it off after about 10 minutes. Just atrocious viewing. We thought with a couple of decent actors in it, it may have passed muster to keep us slightly entertained for a couple of hours... but we were oh so wrong. I suppose if you were a 12 year old living in a two dimensional Barbie world of vapid nonsense and you cry yourself to sleep every night in the hope that your broken family would miraculously fix itself, you might find this a little entertaining, but it's pretty unlikely. Save yourself. Watch something else... anything else.

It feels like this movie was made by the laziest people in the world. Awful writing, lazy and unimaginative. Definitely seen Hallmark movies with more intelligence and zest. If the producers/writers had set out to kill the career of Halston Sage with this obnoxious, neurotic, poorly written character, they were doing a really good job of it for my taste. I hope it was only the cringey, badly written character, but I fear it was not. I didn't warm to her even in the most opportune comedic moments. The only redeeming feature for her in this movie was her opposite, Andrew Richardson who gives an utterly charming, subtle and warm performance. Perfectly tuned for a RomCom. She's lucky he turned up. Harden and Quinn manage their participation as well as you'd expect these two seasoned veterans to do. While Quinn came out strongest (and most grounded) Harden occasionally gives off a slight disconnect here and there. They got lucky with their fairly straightforward arcs and played them with light touches while ignoring the gaps and leaps in the writing. It feels like it was written in a hurry and no-one bothered with a second draft.

To be fair, my wife and I watched this solely because we by chance saw the trailer and noticed it was filmed in her hometown. We weren't expecting much and sure enough it was a very forgettable rom com. It was like a Hallmark movie with with a slightly bigger budget and far more notable cast. The movie perhaps elicited one genuine chuckle or two, but was otherwise rather unbelievable and often cringey. The cast looked like they were enjoying themselves, so good for them I suppose. When you're an Oscar winner like Marcia Gay Harden, I feel that gives you the right to do whatever the hell you want.

Finally, the "Sad Bar" is far more vibrant and well lit in real life as opposed to its depressing depiction in the film, lol.