Talk about contrived? Yikes! "Eloise" (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) makes the cardinal error of inviting her estranged and dysfunctional family to London for her posh wedding. Her brother "Paul" (Ben Platt) and his boyfriend "Dominic" (Karan Soni); her unpredictable and unreliable sister "Alice" (Kristen Bell) who is having an affair with her married, architect, boss and finally her mother "Donna" (Allison Janney). It seems that they all pretty much loathe each other in equal measure, but they all decide to attend and in so doing "Alice" hooks up with the handsome "Dennis" (Dustin Milligan - probably the only decent person in the whole thing) with the others going through the usual relationship tribulations that, aside from a fun scene in a Thames-side inflatable champagne dinghy - rarely raise even the faintest hint of a smile. What Miss Janney is doing in this is anyone's guess, and without a song to sing I am afraid that Platt is just, well flat! I think the trick with good comedy is having characters that we can at least like. I struggled here with all of them before the ending that could have been seen by a blind man from outer space. The soundtrack is quite good now and again, but otherwise the writing and direction offer us nothing at all new here and it almost left me wishing for Henry Golding's equally lacklustre Christmas effort from 2019!
Review of The People We Hate at the Wedding
