Review: Destination Wedding
The title may seem generic, but the film is anything but. One of the best romantic comedies in recent times not to come out of Netflix, Destination Wedding finds Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in their fourth and arguably best pairing as bickering singles who are obviously meant for one another.
If writer-director Victor Levin's previous film, 5 to 7, was a swooning, European-flavoured romance, then his sophomore debut proudly lies at the almost brutally cynical end of the rom-com spectrum. Amusingly subtitled, "A Narcissist Can't Die Because Then The Entire World Would End," the film introduces Frank (Reeves) and Lindsay (Ryder) as they wait to board a flight to San Luis Obispo. Within seconds of meeting one another, the carping begins. She calls him out for sidling up next to her and making small talk as a means of cutting in front of the queue. He calmly ripostes that he only took a step forward to get away from her and now she's making him out to be "the author of a Byzantine conspiracy theory of a Machiavellian land grab designed to usurp your position on an aircraft that has eight seats." They're only getting started.
Once they realise they're both headed to the same wedding, they're further disheartened by the discovery that the groom-to-be is not only his brother but her ex-fiancee who broke off their engagement a mere week before the wedding. Lindsay is attending to get closure, six years after the rupture; Frank has been forced to attend by his mother, whose multiple divorces have left him traumatised. Though the two vow to stop talking to one another, they also can't help but be bonded by their misanthropy and viewers are the fortunate beneficiaries of their barbed bon mots and jagged pas de deux. Upon witnessing that Frank's mother's partner has left her for an older woman, Frank notes, "He would have left [her] for an otter." Meanwhile, Lindsay feels it odd to refer to an older woman as a girlfriend - perhaps calling her "an ossified, pre-dead, corpse friend" would be better?
Honestly, one can't help but be swept up by the film's cynical charm and the irresistible and delightful experience of watching Reeves and Ryder play off one another. It's no accident that all other characters are firmly in the periphery and have no speaking lines. Reeves and Ryder carry the film with expertise and aplomb - her Lindsay is a dizzying tornado of neuroses whilst Frank is the picture of resigned, disappointed zen.
Destination Wedding
Directed by: Victor Levin
Written by: Victor Levin
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, DJ Dallenbach, Greg Lucey, Ted Dubost, D. Rosh Wright
