L'année des mariages

I'm not a great fan of romantic comedies, so I sat in expecting nothing. It had some good moments, but overall it failed to be anything more than a cute love story.

The main focus of the movie is about the stage of a relationship, when it begins to become serious. What problems couples encounter when planning their life together? Is love enough to make it work? What if you don't like your partner's family? What if you don't aggree with when do you want to have children and where to raise them?

This is a point where the movie could have been unique, because romantic movies rarely focus on this stage of the relationship instead of the falling in love part. However, it fails to do so big time, because it doesn't care to answer these questions. The moral is simply "forget problems, love will solve everything", which is not a real solution to the main characters' problems, and it is also dealt with in one sentence.

The acting is... okay I guess. Sarah Hyland brings the exact same character as in Modern Family, the others are nothing special. The characters are clichéd (eccentric girl with commitment issues, guy coming from a small town with dreams, shy gay friend, conservative southern parents, etc.). I liked the film's structure with the seven weddings showing the progression of their relationships.

So, to summarize, a typical romantic comedy, which tries to be something more than that, but fails to be. If you like rom-coms, you'll have fun watching it with popcorn and soda, but don't expect anything more.

While some concepts of the storytelling is typical, it grabbed me on the not so typical dialogues. I was laughing throughout the movie, until of course, the sad bits. The chemistry between the leads were undeniable, they look great together. I really loved it, it is definitely worth a watch. Love the random but real dialogues.

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.

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.

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.