2640. Wedding Unplanned (2017)

Starring: Reem Kherici, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Julia Piaton

Director: Reem Kherici

Running Time: 94 mins

Wedding Unplanned (Jour J) is a French film about a man who finds himself stuck in an awkward position after his girlfriend finds the business card belonging to his lover, a wedding planner – and mistaking it for a proposal.

There are parts of Wedding Unplanned that feature a little bit of entertaining romantic chaos, but on the whole, this is a painfully predictable film that doesn’t ever take advantage of its enjoyable premise, unfortunately ending up as a dull love triangle story that you’ve seen a million times before, all the while lacking any really strong comedy to make the film in any way more fun to watch.

Simply put, there’s not all that much to praise about Wedding Unplanned, but as I like to look for a few positives in even the most generic of films, there are still a couple of things that I liked about this film. Above all, the two lead performances by Reem Kherici and Nicolas Duvauchelle are good fun.

The pair aren’t the most charismatic or dynamic romantic couple ever seen on screen, but they each have a certain likability that makes the film a whole lot more pleasant to watch at times, particularly when the story moves away from the stress and spectre of an affair going on right in the middle of a wedding being planned.

The rest of the performances aren’t quite as likable, and although Julia Piaton does star as the needy bride-to-be, she lacks the same charm as Kherici and Duvauchelle often have on screen, meaning that despite two strong lead turns, the parts of the film that see that pair apart are far from the same level.

Away from the performances, the film’s story is hardly a work of art, but while it is ultimately a painfully predictable drag, the one thing that it does impress with is that opening misunderstanding that sets up the whole awkward situation that pits the man’s fiancée and mistress right up against one another, starting off with a funny and clever twist on the typical love triangle.

With that said, there’s very little else about the story that’s in any way as entertaining, with the plot developing like any other love triangle you’ve seen before, with almost nothing surprising or interesting about the story coming your way after the first fifteen minutes.

That’s what makes Wedding Unplanned such a dull watch at first, with the film dragging itself to the finish with an infuriatingly bland story. What makes matters worse, however, is that it also lacks any real laughs throughout, making an already dull film even more difficult to enjoy.

The film’s light-hearted atmosphere may be enough to prevent it from feeling like too much of a chore, but the poor comedy and predictable story make it really difficult to find any real enjoyment from, with almost everything it tries to do in an original capacity either falling flat or slipping well under the radar, making for a very frustrating watch throughout, and one that’s far from the enjoyable and chaotic romantic comedy it so wants to be, and that’s why I’m giving Wedding Unplanned a 5.9 overall.