Love Wedding Repeat Review

I was hoping to alternate my content, have a review out one week, and then something more akin to an essay the following week. This should be how content is produced on this site, a new article every week on Thursday at 2pm. However, with the current quarantine and cinemas being shut, I thought it would be difficult to write a review every two weeks. Fortunately, I was reminded that Netflix still has ‘Netflix Originals’ that they add on every week. So I guess there’s no rest for the wicked…

So, Love Wedding Repeat…

Initial impressions aren’t too optimistic, the title harkens back to Edge of Tomorrow’s tagline: “Live, Die, Repeat”. Further surprisingly, I keep mistaking the film title as ‘Love Die Repeat’ due to the similarity. Despite this, the film has more in common with the 1999 German hit Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) than Edge of Tomorrow, or Groundhog Day. Instead of the day resetting and a character has a chance to change everything to get the girl, instead it’s just different possible outcomes from one decision. This was done well in Run Lola Run as you see how some of the changes Lola makes changes everything, including the characters she meets. A more easily accessible comparison is season three, episode four of Community (now on Netflix) where we see multiple timelines occur after one another. But Love Wedding Repeat is not quite as entertaining as Community. And the film should probably not try to make me think of alternatives I would much rather be watching.

The film takes place on Hayley’s wedding (played by Eleanor Tomlinson). A tumultuous time for many, with the fear of anything and everything going wrong, so naturally, everything goes wrong. We follow Jack (Sam Claflin), Hayley’s brother, as he is forced to run around and attempt to fix everything that goes haywire. This is taken to the next level when Hayley’s creepy ex-lover Marc (Jack Farthing) shows up to steal Hayley away. Jack is forced to drug Marc at his table, knocking Marc out and preventing any possible situation occurring from Marc’s jealousy. But just after he puts in the drug, a group of kids, as if compelled by a conniving parent, swap around the names. Placing the drug into unknown hands. As the narrator mentions, there is 5,040 ways for eight people to sit around a table. It would be a very long movie if we saw all these ways, so instead we only see two, the worst and best-case scenarios. The first scenario is by far the most enjoyable, everything spirals out of control further and further, starting with Jack’s love interest Dina (Olivia Munn) being forced to listen to Sidney (Tim Key) and ends with the Groom falling to his death. The second reality that we see starts off worse, with Jack being drugged, but eventually everyone gets the best possible outcome.

Now I have sufficiently spoilt the movie, I can start really picking it apart.

To help me thoroughly understand the complexities of weddings and love, I had to call in my marriage expert, Megan Keith. I asked her if she felt the situation was realistic, as in my eyes a lot of the situations that occurred seemed preventable and all too much for one wedding. However, she said: “I can see it all happening, but maybe when the bride jumped on Marc when he said they slept together, I think when you’re all glammed up like that and everyone’s watching you, you wouldn’t attack someone.” I also asked if she would’ve had Marc thrown out, as in the film they debate it, except they wish to cause little fuss. Megan said: “Nah, I’d still call security. Fuss or not, at least he would be gone. He wasn’t invited, so he has no right to be there.”

To me, a film like this is rather difficult to review. If it is a film I hate it’s really easy to just go on a 2,000-word rant about everything about it that’s bad, but Love Wedding Repeat doesn’t inspire such hatred, or even love. It is a mediocre film with some decent jokes every now and then. I found myself interested in the characters, especially Sidney and Chaz (Allan Mustafa), hoping they could grow and improve. And I was sufficiently pleased with what they got at the end. In some respects, it felt the ending was a bit rushed (the maid of honour gets an acting role out of nowhere) but aside from that, it was a fine film. Even Marc somehow has a satisfying conclusion despite the drugs in his system and conflicting emotions.

The greatest pitfall of the film is that it does not really do much with its premise. As mentioned, we only see two realities. We see some of the others as they quickly flip through and we see what happens if the other characters were drugged. I felt it was too short and did not relish in the craziness that would happen in some of these other realities, so it would benefit from being a short TV show. The first episode would be the set-up, the wedding and Marc making an appearance. The following episodes would then be the crazy scenarios that occurred from that one change, concluding on the best-case scenario This would allow us to know more about Rebecca (Aisling Bea) and Amanda (Freida Pinto) who we’re only given minimal information about.

Overall, the film is fine. It is perfectly tolerable if you are looking for something a bit silly and entertaining during the quarantine. But there is a lot of better alternatives available for you. If you need help deciding, I wrote an article listing films you could watch: What to Watch During the Apocalypse.