Due to a bizarre piece of bad luck, sister Margot (Reese Witherspoon) and father Jim (Will Ferrell) discover they have accidentally double-booked the same venue for their respective family member's wedding.
Despite a truce, the pair begin a Cold War to drive out the other.
The dearth of theatrical comedies has been an issue for years.
I have been trying to watch more new comedies, and I want to diversify more in terms of what I cover on this blog.
I was trying to recall recent examples to review and this was the most recent example I could think of.
I will not pretend that this movie is good. I watched it on a plane, which might be a qualifier for my judgement:
I laughed a couple of times, but my biggest reaction was nostalgia for these kinds of high concept romantic comedies.
They seem to have died out on the big screen, and have become more the domain of streaming. This one was released through Amazon but it at least feels vaguely like a real movie.
The one giveaway is that it has that same desaturated digital look that a lot of streaming movies have.
While I do not think this movie ultimately works, the bones are there.
The script seems to be solid, with legible arcs for each of its main characters, but plenty of space left for madness to ensue.
The biggest issue may be miscasting, but in a very specific way: stars Witherspoon and Ferrell feel like they are in completely different versions of the same movie.
The movie feels like two halves of the same movie made in different realities that have been merged through some collapse of the multiverse.
One can see a version of this movie with Witherspoon and Jason Bateman or Mark Ruffalo; likewise, one could see a more cartoonish version featuring Ferrell with Tina Fey or Regina Hall.
The actors are both funny, but in completely different ways that do not seem to complement each other.
It makes the movie kinda interesting as a case study of the clash between Witherspoon’s tightly wound neurosis versus Ferrell’s broad emotional explosiveness.
It might have come off if the movie did not show its final trump card of having our misbegotten leads get together romantically at the end.
It is such an unbelievable conclusion that even the movie seems to recognise how silly it is.
After Witherspoon realises Ferrell has been secretly falling for her, we get a hilariously awkward flashback montage of Ferrell creepily grinning at Witherspoon after all of their fiery interactions.
It is a legitimately funny sequence that takes advantage of the limitations of Ferrell’s star persona (my man can do a lot of things, but romantic ardour is not one of them), almost akin to the movie throwing up its hands at the contrived finale.
As for the rest of the cast, Geraldine Viswanathan is well-cast as Ferrell’s daughter. She also is one cast member who feels like she can authentically move between Ferrell and Witherspoon’s comic spheres without missing a step.
If there was any justice in this world, she would be getting the lead in stronger entries in the genre.
Not a complete waste of time, You’re Cordially Invited shows that there are still faint flickers of life in the Hollywood comedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment