"The People We Hate at the Wedding" -- Movie Review

 

This week, I streamed Amazon Studios new Prime Video comedy, “The People We Hate at the Wedding”, starring Allison Janney and Kristen Bell.  

Synopsis

When a dysfunctional blended family reunites for a wedding abroad, can they avoid triggering each other to prevent the nuptials from turning into a disaster?

Story

In her youth, Donna (Allison Janney) met and married Henrique (Isaach De Bankolé); they lived in London with their daughter Eloise (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) – but unfortunately, they did not live happily ever after.  A few years later, Henrique began cheating on Donna; they ultimately divorced and Donna returned to the United States with Eloise.  Eventually, Donna remarried and had two more children with her new husband:  Alice (Kristen Bell) and Paul (Ben Platt).  They all lived together until Donna’s husband passed away.  Once the children were grown, they went their separate ways – Eloise left for London and the once-close family was now distanced both geographically and emotionally.

The day that everyone was secretly dreading has finally arrived:  Eloise announces that she’s getting married and she wants her mother and half-siblings to attend.  Although Donna is happy for her oldest daughter, she doesn’t look forward to making the long trip to London, especially since she will inevitably wind up having to see Henrique once again after all these years.  Likewise, Alice and Paul find this to be a significant interruption to their own life; feeling rather detached from their half-sister, the rigmarole is nothing but a nuisance – not to mention bad timing. 

Reluctantly, they agree to attend (as if they had a choice!).  Alice, who is having an affair with her married boss, heads to London on her own; her “boyfriend” agrees to meet her there just in time for the ceremony.  Paul and his partner also fly out, only to eventually learn that their own relationship is on the rocks when they meet up with another man.  Following a raucous and chaotic pre-wedding party, Eloise then informs her mother and half-siblings that they are uninvited from the wedding.  On the day of the ceremony, Eloise has a meltdown and starts to panic.  Can the family finally come together to help her save her special day?

Review

Based on the book by Grant Ginder, the R-rated movie adaptation of “The People We Hate at the Wedding” seems to be going for the same audience that made the film “Bridesmaids” such a huge (and well-deserved) hit.  The problem is that despite terrific performances by both Kristen Bell and the consistently excellent Allison Janney, the humor is not quite sharp enough, even though it does make many attempts to rely on the same style of ribald jokes.  One gets the sense that the screenwriters may have downed many glasses of Chardonnay as a prelude to getting their words into the script.   

If you are considering streaming “The People We Hate at the Wedding” on Prime Video, it may be worth it more for seeing Janney and Bell rather than the film itself.  Janney provides the necessary credibility for her character while Bell seems quite comfortable playing the quite outlandish daughter from the second marriage; speaking of outlandish, Ben Platt’s character has one scene where a gay three-way is threatened to ensue – that scene alone is conceivably what earns this movie the R-rating it justly deserves.  Definitely not a family-friendly film unless your family is as twisted as the one portrayed here. 

Coming in at less than two hours, “The People We Hate at the Wedding” is not a very demanding investment of your time – in fact, at a little over an hour and a half, it’s just about the perfect length for a comedy.  More mildly amusing than actually laugh-out-loud funny, this movie can serve as something of a lighthearted distraction if that’s all that you’re in the mood for – but if you’re in need of more substantial entertainment, it may be necessary to look elsewhere.  There aren’t too many serious scenes in this film, so don’t expect anything terribly profound.  In fact, it’s a motion picture that will likely be easily forgotten not too soon after it’s been viewed.