Dev Patel has grown significantly since Slumdog Millionaire. The happy-go-lucky youthfulness we saw in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Agra Motel 6: We’ll Leave the Paper Lantern on for You has been re-imagined as grown-up badassery. Watch nice guy Dev scowl, pack heat, and run the show as he becomes The Wedding Guest nobody invited.
I came into this film with no expectations, but could guess from the title there would be smiles and revelry. Aren’t all wedding films filled with such? Um, no. In fact, there isn’t even a wedding in The Wedding Guest. Well, gosh, there’s a twist, huh? Hmmm, lemme think: where exactly was the point at which I realized this wasn’t gonna be the kind of film where Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn showed up to meet ladies? Jay (Patel) gets off a plane somewhere in Pakistan. Clue #1: He takes a cab to the city where he rents a car. Clue #2. The soundtrack isn’t happy. Clue #3. We aren’t meeting anybody besides Dev Patel. Clue #4 Dev Patel isn’t happy. And it’s not just a wistful, distracted lost-sheep-dunno-where-I-am unhappy, it’s a determined unhappy, like the man is in a drama. Clue #5 Jay buys two guns. Clue #6 Jay buys duct tape. Clue #7 Jay rents another car.
Suddenly, this has become like trivia night where the hints get more and more obvious until you lose all the possible points. I’m not sure I would have scored more than 400 on this particular question; it looked odd, but it wasn’t until Jay is actually pricing weaponry that I clued in: this isn’t really a wedding film, is it?
Jay has been hired to kidnap the bride. It ain’t gonna be easy; the father is wealthy; the family sleeps twenty to a house and there’s literally an armed guard on duty. Huh, just how good is Jay, anyway? Like Seal Team good? He has a plan. He knows exactly what he’s doing. This looks like a guy who’s extracted a person or two in his time.
Much as I’d like to describe somebody who isn’t Jay, doing so gives away more plot than I’m comfortable with sharing. So I’m kind of at an impasse with Navy Seal Dev Patel and the wedding that’s gonna have issues. I’ll give it this much – if you’ve only seen Slumdog or one of the Marigolds and wanted to see Dev Patel grow as an actor, hoo boy, you get your wish.
Part of me still wants to reconcile The Wedding Guest with My Big Fat Greek Wedding and The Wedding Singer and Wedding Crashers and Four Weddings and a Funeral and My Best Friend’s Wedding. Let me try. There’s this wedding. Traditional Greek. Happy. It’s one of a series in which the toasts will all be awkward and hilarious and one of the best men will eventually score through endearing humility. Speaking of scoring, two guys show up at each wedding to hit on bridesmaids. And one bridesmaid is happily in love with the groom while the lead singer of the wedding band is hopelessly in love with the bride … and then a heavily armed military commando drops in, blows up something, and kidnaps the bride.
Yeah, the word “Wedding” really sets you up for a different type of film, doesn’t it?
♪Goin’ to the gun store and I’m gonna get an Uzi
Yeah, I’m Goin’ to a wedding and it’s gonna be a doozy
Gee, I hate to do this
But I’m goin’ to make the news-y
Going to crap over this love♫
Rated R, 94 Minutes
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writer: Michael Winterbottom
Genre: So long as it’s a wedding without Matthew McConaughey, I’ll take it
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Thriller fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Wedding fans
♪ Parody Inspired by “Chapel of Love”
