Table 19

Sometimes, a wedding just isn't a happy ending.




Table 19 is the latest starring vehicle for Anna Kendrick that just doesn't quite use her talents well and lets her and the rest of the cast down.  When the movie opens, we see her and various other people struggling to decide whether to go to a wedding.  Yada yada, she and the other people go for various reasons, we discover she used to date the best man and was maid of honor until two months ago and now she's stuck at the outcast table.   And by yada yada, I mean about 20 minutes of messy nonsense that could have been streamlined quite a bit.

The opening is a mess but once the movie settles down it's a pretty decent romantic comedy with a cast that elevates the material.  You have June Squibb as the bride's nanny,  Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow as a sniping couple and Stephen Merchant as a cousin of the bride, all delivering good work. Unfortunately, you also have Tony Revolori stuck playing a sex-obsessed geek weirdo straight out of a John Hughes movie from 1986 and despite what he can do with it the characters trope of social misfitism he just comes off as creepy and stalkish.

Anyhoo, romance prevails, there's some good dramatic moments (Squibb in particular is quite good) and Wyatt Russell gets to do what he does well as the ex of Kendrick's character.  Overall the movie is OK. See it on a lazy Saturday when it hits Netflix.

★★1/2

2017 - Directed and written by Jeffrey Blitz