Director: Michael Winterbottom
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 96 minutes
The Wedding Guest (DVD) – Movie Review
There are many Indian movies for those looking for some real Bollywood entertainment, but overall, there aren’t that many Hollywood productions that star actors from the region, or that have roots connected to the region. The biggest movie in our recollection will probably be Slumdog Millionaire which is already over a decade old. This time we get to see the lead actor of said film star in The Wedding Guest, which is nothing compared to Slumdog Millionaire, but it does have great acting performances. The story, however, does have some holes in it.
The Wedding Guest’s story isn’t that easy to describe, as it would actually spoil the entire movie. You’ll see Jay (Dev Patel) preparing for a journey to Pakistan, which eventually becomes a mission to kidnap a young woman. This young woman, named Samira (Radhika Apte), is to be wed soon, but she doesn’t want to marry the man who is betrothed to her. She is kidnapped to be brought to the man she really loves, but not everything goes according to plan when a man dies during her kidnapping. This gets her even more unwanted attention in the newspapers, which wouldn’t have happened if the bystander hadn’t died. Nonetheless, she’ll have to spend a lot of time with Jay to be transported from point A to point B, but she soon learns that her picture-perfect plan of a new life has some holes in it.
We can start off by saying that this movie is really, really slow. Both the introduction and the progression are dragged out, and while this will certainly come at the cost of some viewers, it does make everything a bit more powerful. You’ll dive into the movie with an intro that feels somewhat useless, but after watching the entire movie, you understand the build-up. There is hardly any real action in the movie, which is something you wouldn’t expect when reading the summary on the back of the box, and also when looking at the cover. The overall premise feels and looks right for something action-packed but the movie describes itself as a thriller. We felt it would be better described as a pseudo-thriller with the overall buildup of a ‘drama’ movie.
It’s easy to say, that for the most part, the acting performances can be described as an intriguing duet between Dev Patel and Radhika Apte. Dev Patel is most known for his performance in Slumdog Millionaire and it’s interesting to see how the actor has grown to adapt to other roles as well. While we can’t say that this performance is better, it’s certainly different. Radhika Apte does a formidable job in playing the counterpart of Patel, and she does so formidably. When taking a look at her track record, she is more invested in real Bollywood performances, so it’s interesting to see her perform in a role such as this.
There is no additional content to be found on the DVD edition of The Wedding Guest. While some special features are always fun to explore, this type of movie doesn’t really need further explaining and there weren’t that many scenes that would be useful for a making-of sequence. In this case, we reckon less is more, and throwing some features on the disc wouldn’t have added any value.
Conclusion
The Wedding Guest is a fairly decent movie, with stellar acting performances. The cast is what drives this movie forward, as it seems there was very little source material to work with. If you’re looking for a somewhat slow-moving original love story, then The Wedding Guest will provide you with an interesting and somewhat fun evening. If you were expecting a lot of action when looking at a short summary online, you couldn’t be further away from the truth.
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