Our Dream Wedding

This one begins with a couple who are already in love. Sometimes those meet-cutes get old. The story was simple and well-written. It didn't try to be funny or overly dramatic. No exotic locales, McMansions, or festivals. The acting was really good, especially from Rachel Hendrix and James Austin Kerr. There were some heart-tugging moments, and I really felt for both of the main characters in places. He proposes marriage out of nowhere and she turns him down. I didn't really blame her. Very bad timing. With the help of her grandmother's magic wedding veil, she sees her future married to Scott. The marriage is solid, but not fairy-tale fantasy. There were tensions and some bickering. But they were happy. When will the veil let her go back to her real life and fix things with Scott? Can she fix them? All will be unveiled.

This was so depressing for a cute, sweet romance. These time-travel movies that show the female character what her life would be like if she marries or hadn't married the man in question inevitably portray marriage as depressing or, at the very least, frustrating. In addition to that issue, the girl in this movie was terrible at communicating. You would think a doctor would be able to make words come out of her mouth...but not this girl. She could never manage to say anything when just a simple word would have defused the situation.

I will lump this story in with all those movies where the protagonist can see her life in an alternate timeline based on different life choices. This is a bit different than most where the protagonist is not the same age as before the switch but viewing the resulting different life choices. In this case, she travels to a future she has never lived based on a possibly different life choice.

I'm not a fan of the inevitable confusion of her not having memories of her new life. There is a little of that here, but they don't overdo it with constant embarrassment. The writers play with it a little. There is a cute sequence where Natalie is trying to explain her dilemma to her mother and for a few seconds you think mom is going to admit she had the same experience with the veil, but then that bubble bursts. At least Mimi of the future knows what is going on. Another nice sequence is a date away from the kids with future Scott where Natalie can pump him for info without arousing suspicion. There are a few more cute sequences.

There are also some more serious sequences. The movie explores some of the family drama that occurs when two parents aren't on the same page exactly on issues involving their children. In this case, Natalie wouldn't know whether they ever discussed those things previously or not. Even so, the tension in the story never gets to be a lot.

The acting is good and there is some good dialogue. Natalie is appealing enough but a little neurotic about making decisions both with Scott and her professional future. She is also not great at really communicating. Proposing Scott is presumptuous, but future Scott seems like a good husband and parent.

Overall I think the script is fresh. I found most of it, after the jump forward, to be hopeful. It presents a surprisingly positive marriage where the few obstacles that pop up seem to be solved by reaffirming of love for each other.

Pretty good fantasy movie about a girl who turns down a wedding proposal and then gets a chance to see what her future could have been when she puts on a magic veil. I really enjoyed this movie, right up my alley.

The female lead was appealing but the male lead played a dork. Not only that he was rude, obnoxious, overbearing, and annoying. No wonder the female had commitment issues; who would want to marry him? In one scene he enters her family's house to pick her up and takes the last three cookies for himself. We turned it off shortly after that since we just couldn't. If a woman was faced with the prospect of marrying a man like that, that is enough to depress anyone. Too bad since the story could have worked with the rest of the cast and a more likable male lead who was actually in the same league as the female.