After their parents died, Raif (Rufus Hound) went travelling while more staid Tim (Robert Webb) remained at home and settled into a conventional life. Tim is now about to marry Saskia (Lucy Punch) and Raif has returned to be best man. He also has in mind compiling a fly-on-the-wall video of the events leading up to and including the wedding. That's the plot. There's more to it than that, of course - Saskia has a past as a wilful teenager, Tim gets more uptight as time goes on, Saskia's family as nouveau riche and her mother (Harriet Walter) is set on outdoing all the other nouveaux riches, and so on.
My early thoughts were that this didn't really belong on the cinema screen. With a cast mostly known for TV work, it had a feel of a long episode from a sitcom. But, as it went on I warmed to it more, and I ended up enjoying it a great deal. In fact, I laughed often and heartily (there is a dance sequence which is laugh out loud funny).
The characters are all likable, which helps (even Robert Webb's Tim, saddled with an uptight anal-retentive character who folds his dirty washing before putting it in the laundry basket, is essentially a good, likable person). The events stay within the boundaries of credibility, the plot is satisfactory (if somewhat glib towards the end), and there is some excellent acting, particularly from Harriet Walter and Lucy Punch. Lucy Punch has a happy knack of being attractive, sexy, and funny, all at the same time.
The fly on the wall home video motif is well sustained for most of the film but falls to bits towards the end, where a scene in a field has multiple camera angles.
This is a small film, but one which I found much more rewarding than I expected to.
My early thoughts were that this didn't really belong on the cinema screen. With a cast mostly known for TV work, it had a feel of a long episode from a sitcom. But, as it went on I warmed to it more, and I ended up enjoying it a great deal. In fact, I laughed often and heartily (there is a dance sequence which is laugh out loud funny).
The characters are all likable, which helps (even Robert Webb's Tim, saddled with an uptight anal-retentive character who folds his dirty washing before putting it in the laundry basket, is essentially a good, likable person). The events stay within the boundaries of credibility, the plot is satisfactory (if somewhat glib towards the end), and there is some excellent acting, particularly from Harriet Walter and Lucy Punch. Lucy Punch has a happy knack of being attractive, sexy, and funny, all at the same time.
The fly on the wall home video motif is well sustained for most of the film but falls to bits towards the end, where a scene in a field has multiple camera angles.
This is a small film, but one which I found much more rewarding than I expected to.