By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson, Tony Revolori, Stephen Merchant, June Squibb, Rya Meyers, Wyatt Russell and Andrew Daly.
Rating: Poor.
Jeffrey Blitz, director of “Rocket Science” teams up with Jay and Mark Duplass with “Table 19”, a romantic comedy that unfortunately didn´t deliver.
The movie centers in Eloise McGarry (Anna Kendrick) a former maid of honor who recently was dumped by via text message by the brother and men of honor of the wedding Teddy (Wyatt Russell).
Now an indecisive Eloise will now have to decide on going to the wedding or not. At the end she accepts on going in support of her friend.
When she arrives to the ballroom she is put in a table with complete strangers who have nothing in common besides the fact of being related to the bride.
Now Eloise will have a chance to appreciate and cherish this day and to be open of the fact of meeting new people and being more tolerant.
“Table 19” is a romantic comedy that had very good moments and funny skits but ultimately I saw a ripoff from a John Hughes movie.
I am surprised since the movie was written by both Mark and Jay Duplass who are really good in this genre and are very original and clever in their writing. We saw it in the movie “Cyrus” which is a very sweet, tender and the comedy and the timing was really good.
The characters of the film were too vague and at the same time I didn´t feel identified with them at all to the point that I considered them annoying.
I could tell the movie was very influenced by “The Breakfast Club” but honestly this wasn´t even close. You cannot make something similar to a movie that represented so much in the eighties without the audience noticing it.
I am also surprised of the cast they used since they have actors like Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson and June Squibb who I consider the best actors in comedy but here there wasn´t any and honestly I stopped caring about the characters and film when the second act started.
I mentioned before that this genre is very generous since you can be predictable and still be very funny but there are limits and this movie pushed those boundaries excessively.
Anna Kendrick is also a very talented actress and funny but here my patience overstepped my limit and I just wanted the movie to be over.
I hope this is a learning experience not only for the Duplass brothers but for Jeffrey Blitz and the cast as well.
“Table 19” is one of the most weaker comedies I´ve seen in a while due to it´s poor directing and writing and I cannot recommend it.