Anyone can make an alternate reality movie by simply posing the question “But what if THIS happened?” Doing so with elegance requires more thought: You need a sliding door, a hereditary time-travel gene, a sports almanac in the wrong hands. Sadly, Netflix's Love Wedding Repeat has none of those things, and nothing substantive to replace them.
Written and directed by Dean Craig, Love Wedding Repeat opens with Jack (Sam Claflin) and Dina (Olivia Munn), ostensibly experiencing the connection of a lifetime. Their magical evening together is cut short, however, and they don’t meet again until three years later at Jack's sister Hayley’s wedding (Eleanor Tomlinson).
This suggests an alternate universe in which this movie made more of an effort, but that is not the universe in which we live.
Hayley is emotionally overwhelmed on wedding day, not least because she met her husband six months ago and misses her late parents (if you want to learn more, you won't), but that doesn't stop her from stirring up some chaos. She springs Dina’s presence on Jack at the last minute and seats them both with his ex-girlfriend (Freida Pinto) — but Hayley is in for her own drama with the unannounced arrival of college admirer Marc (Jack Farthing). Horrified that he might ruin the wedding, Hayley tasks Jack with spiking Marc's champagne so he knocks out for the rest of the night.
Naturally, things don’t go according to plan, hence the Repeat in the title — which doesn’t occur until halfway through the movie, and only happens once. It feels more like an escape route from finishing the movie than a viable narrative device. This and several other crucial moments emphasizing the randomness of fate are narrated by “The Oracle,” a character (if you can call it that) who is never explained or justified.
The film asks us to imagine the bigger picture, the complexity and unlikelihood of events that occur and how marvelous or catastrophic it is to exist in any given moment, because it is a rare moment regardless that has never happened before nor will it again.
Image: netflix
That is a lot to put on the self-contained story of one wedding reception and where one dummy places a glass at his table. Ultimately, nothing besides the fate of the doomed glass is given any significance in this grand treatise about the butterfly effect. It doesn't matter who sits where or wears what or says something — and no scenario addresses the real what if, the hypothetical in which these characters made different choices before Hayley’s wedding and didn’t wake up that morning already having regrets.
When the Repeat does finally roll around, we're teased by four other options of who could take the sleep serum, but they play out in a quick montage. This suggests an alternate universe in which this movie made more of an effort, but that is not the universe in which we live.
The film isn't a total lost cause, boasting a strong ensemble, but it gets harder to keep track of everyone after the reset and cutting a couple players might have mitigated that. The second act drags to the point that you forget certain characters ever existed until they return, and picking up the thread in this timeline takes concentration. Claflin reveals himself to be a savant when it comes to all kinds of awkward sputtering, and no matter how many mortifying situations Jack encounters, that performance is a treat. The same goes for Aisling Bea's blunt banter and a perfectly-cast Pinto, having the time of her life with bitchy brevity.
Image: Netflix
The trailer for Love Wedding Repeat hits you with twist after gaffe after punchline, while the film itself doesn’t seem to know what to do between those high-drama beats and sloppily treads water. It doesn’t even benefit from being set in Rome, because apart from a few gorgeous aerial shots in the opening, it takes place entirely in the wedding venue, a set that could be literally anywhere in the world.
In the end, it’s all tediously cut-and-dry. Love Wedding Repeat simply tells us that things could be different and then illustrates one example, with unremarkable payoff. The Oracle beats us over the head with the notion of chance, but when things do go right we want to credit the characters themselves, not that damned champagne glass.
Love Wedding Repeat is now streaming on Netflix.
