What’s It About
A woman planning her sister’s ideal wedding and the father of a bride-to-be discover their destination weddings at a remote resort are double-booked. When both parties decide to share the small venue, chaos ensues and disaster awaits.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
This wedding comedy brings together Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell in an entertaining clash over a double-booked venue. The story centers on Jim (Ferrell), a loving single father who’s made his daughter’s happiness his life’s mission since losing his wife. When his daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) comes home with surprise engagement news, Jim jumps into action. He books what he thinks is the perfect spot – the same island resort where he had his own wedding years ago. On the other side, we’ve got Margot (Witherspoon), a busy TV executive who’s taken charge of planning her sister Neve’s (Meredith Hagner) wedding. Neve is marrying Dixon (Jimmy Tatro), a surprisingly thoughtful Chippendales dancer. Margot picks the same island venue because it holds special childhood memories with their grandmother. She’s also secretly pleased that her difficult mother (Celia Weston) hates the location. The real fun starts when both families show up at the tiny resort on the same weekend. After the initial shock and some arguing about who booked first, they decide to share the space. This is where things get interesting – Jim means well but keeps accidentally messing up Margot’s careful plans, leading to some great scenes where Witherspoon’s facial expressions say it all. The first half of the movie really works, with Ferrell keeping his usual wild comedy style in check and playing a more relatable character. Viswanathan matches his energy perfectly as his daughter, making their father-daughter relationship feel genuine. The supporting cast adds some nice touches too – Weston is fantastic as Margot’s mom, who disapproves of everything, and Tatro brings unexpected laughs as the male dancer who takes his job very seriously. Both main stars get chances to shine – Witherspoon has a hilarious scene giving a drunken speech, and Ferrell can make you laugh just by glaring at someone. However, they’re not really breaking new ground here, mostly playing lighter versions of characters we’ve seen them do before in other movies. The movie starts losing its way toward the end, trying too hard to squeeze out extra laughs when it should have wrapped up sooner. Some parts feel unnecessary, like all the scenes with Jenni’s annoying bridesmaids that seem to exist just to make easy jokes about young people. The movie barely shows us the beautiful lake location where it was filmed, and some characters, like Jenni’s grandmother, who appears at the wedding, pop up without any explanation. Despite its problems, the movie offers solid entertainment for most of its runtime, especially in the first half when it focuses on the fun conflict between the two leads. If they had cut about 20 minutes and come up with a better ending, it could have been a much stronger comedy. Still, if you’re a fan of either star, you’ll probably find enough here to enjoy.
OUR RATING – A DOUBLE-BOOKED 5