Love. Wedding. Repeat Parent Guide

I love a good romantic comedy. Appealing lead characters with lots of chemistry, a story packed with laughs, a bit of tension, and a happily ever after ending provide the perfect antidote to a stressful week. Sadly, Netflix’s newest rom-com, Love. Wedding. Repeat., strikes out on all counts. This limp remake of the French film Plan de Table fails to provide either romance or comedy but manages to generate a significant amount of irritation and apathy.

The titular wedding is for Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson) and her Italian fiancé, Roberto (Tiziano Caputo). The pair are getting married in a glamorous Roman villa but Hayley is a mass of nerves. Her doting brother Jack (Sam Claflin) promises to do everything he can to help her have a perfect day but his ability to deliver is tested when the reception is crashed by Marc (Jack Farthing), a drugged up old flame. And Jack’s day is made more difficult by the presence of two women – Amanda (Freida Pinto), his snarky ex-girlfriend, and Dina (Olivia Munn), the one who got away. Juggling these messy relationships is complicated by a sedative gone astray and it looks like Hayley’s wedding is going to come crashing down around her. Luckily, this day isn’t set in stone, and alternate versions of reality spin across the screen until the story settles into a final version with a more hopeful trajectory.

Love. Wedding. Repeat. is full of flaws, but one of the most glaring is that there is no explanation given for the alternate versions of reality. Why does the day reset? We just don’t know. Any movie that’s going to mess around with time needs to provide some kind of rationale, however flimsy, or else the movie just feels weird. If the plot hole isn’t annoying enough, the movie is awash in a sea of content issues. Heavy alcohol use is a problem, with almost all characters drinking to excess in awkward social situations. Characters also use drugs, with one snorting cocaine on two occasions, and another person administering a sedative to someone without their consent. Also immediately obvious is the film’s excessive swear count, with over 80 uses of profanity and vulgar language, including over three dozen uses of the sexual expletive. Crude content doesn’t end with f-bombs; this production stands out (not in a good way) for a fixation on male and female sexual anatomy. One character, in particular, is obsessed with the size of his genitals and spends most of the film discussing his performance in bed and comparing his genital size with that of other men. It’s not funny but it is crude and embarrassing to sit through.

Mixed in with all the unpleasantness are a few bright spots. The film has some strong messages about family love and loyalty and about accepting people for who they really are. The production also has a gorgeous Italian setting and is enhanced by the sparkling classical soundtrack. Sadly, good production values are no compensation for an implausible plot and unappealing characters. When it comes to wedding movies, this isn’t worth a “repeat”, let alone an initial “I do”.