Netflix Review - Love Wedding Repeat (15)

We live in a universe that's ruled by chaos and chance, where all it takes is just one moment of ill-fortune for all our hopes and dreams to go right down the shitter.

The Gist: Mild-mannered Jack (Sam Claflin) is in charge of his sister Hayley's Italian wedding, no parents remaining alive to help organise proceedings. He's determined to get everything right for his troubled little sis (Poldark's flame-haired Eleanor Tomlinson), but events become complicated by unreliable 'maid' of honour Bryan (Joel Fry), Jack's vindictive ex-girlfriend complete with new plus-one and Hayley's cocaine-addled party-crashing ex (additional Poldark alumnus Jack Farthing). Further distraction comes for poor Jack in the form of Dina (Olivia Munn), the American journalist he so nearly got together with one year before. In among the mayhem might be his own best chance at love, but there are multiple ways in which the same day might work out for all concerned, some more disastrous than others...

The Juice: Love Wedding Repeat may be adapted from French farce Plan de Table, but it's plain even from a plot summary that its overriding influence is Richard Curtis. Four Weddings and a Funeral's lavish nuptial rites are transplanted into sun-drenched Italy, while the central conceit of exploring more than one time-line is reminiscent of Curtis' time-travel tale About Time (though Sliding Doors might be a more accurate Britcom reference point here). Even Claflin is channelling the self-deprecating affability of a young Hugh Grant and - in fairness - doing a decent job of it. 

The screenplay, courtesy of writer-director Dean Craig, is clunky in structure, while stronger in its individual moments of character comedy. The latter are helped along by neat performances across the board. Claflin and Munn have a nice romantic chemistry (you do root for them from the start), while Yesterday's scene-stealing Joel Fry works his shambling Rhys Ifans-style magic again, particularly when paired with Irish comedian Aisling Bea as his conversationally disastrous female equivalent. Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto has tremendous fun as the ex from hell, while deft comic actor Tim Key adds to the brew of social ineptitude as Jack's nervously over-talkative friend Sidney.

The Judgement: 6/10. It all chugs along at a leisurely pace, rather than with real comic momentum, though there are a few good comedy punches along the way (including a glorious punchline for the central romance). And if it doesn't match the sheer champagne fizz of Four Weddings, there are enough bubbles in the glass to keep you entertained. There's also a genuine sense of sweetness, despite a central plot device involving the ill-advised use of a sleeping-drug. Don't worry - it's all well-intentioned, as is the film as a whole. Love Wedding Repeat will satisfy your lockdown romcom needs without every becoming too sickly. Enjoy.