This film of this kind was really out of the ordinary. It stars Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder -- two famous actors whose careers blew up big time back in the late 1980s to the 1990s. Both of them have been having revivals in their careers in recent years. Reeves had been rocking the "John Wick" film series. Ryder starred in the hit web TV series "Stranger Things." I thought that it was interesting to see both of them again on the big screen together, and in a rom-com to boot.
Their first movie together was "Bram Stoker's Dracula" where Ryder played the lead role of Mina, while Reeves played support as Jonathan Harker, her husband. The two of them were also cast as leads in a rotoscopic sci-fi thriller "A Scanner Darkly" (2006), and as unrelated supporting characters in a comedy-drama "The Private Life of Pippa Lee" (2009). Ryder and Reeves were never really rom-com actors in their prime before, and this is their first one together -- she at age 46, and he at age 54.
Frank and Lindsay were strangers who met while getting on a plane to be guests at the same destination wedding in the vineyards of San Luis Obispo, California. Frank was the groom's estranged brother. Lindsay was the groom's ex-fiancé. Since they were constantly beside each other on the plane, the hotel, the spa, the shuttle, the pew -- they soon got to know how much they share the same cynicism about the world around them. Will all these negativistic conversations lead to something positive for these two anti-romantics?
Writer-director Victor Levin only made two people talk in this film -- Frank and Lindsay. The other people around them do not actually have a chance to defend themselves from what Frank and Lindsay gossip about them. Every line exchanged by Frank and Lindsay with each other was skeptical or pessimistic of someone or something. I could envision that some viewers will feel exasperated with the continuous barrage of hypercritical diatribes. For me though, I actually found most of these disparaging sarcastic remarks quite funny and entertaining despite being over-the-top.
Keanu Reeves had his John Wick look here, with this bearded cheeks. That look of his made Frank's cynical statements, all delivered in dry deadpan, all the more funny. There were certainly some embarassing scenes of an intimate nature, with some uncomfortable talk afterwards that Reeves all did with a serious face on. He was not trying hard at all to be funny, which made him funnier as a result.
Winona Ryder had such a flighty character in Lindsay. She was always getting involved with the wrong man, yet seemingly not learning any lessons. Her very reason for even considering to attend this wedding in the first place was already questionable. She constantly had something to say about anything, always complaining, always finding fault. On the other hand, she also knew how to shamelessly extol about men and their parts.
A film like this is bound to polarize based on age. Younger viewers may not be able to sit through this at all. However, Gen X'ers who grew up idolizing Ryder and Reeves, two of the biggest movie stars of their generation, will have a cherished fondness for their onscreen partnership. After all, these Gen X'ers should be able to connect better with the various concerns tackled by Frank and Lindsay in their arguments than millennials. Now if they only had the patience to keep listening to these unpleasant people ramble on and on, that is another thing. 6/10.
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