THE WEDDING PLAN REVIEWED
“The Wedding Plan” is supported by Noa Koler’s strong performance. She turns what could’ve been a stern religious movie into a slice of life dramatic comedy. While the nature of the comedy borders on “Louie” at times, it doesn’t fully commit. Watching a young woman lose her fiancee is sad. However, this doesn’t get our lead down. She knows that God will provide another husband for her wedding day. She’s just got 22 days to make it happen.
In America, this would’ve been an unwatchable romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson in 2006. When done overseas, it comes with the baggage of asking Americans to understand other cultures. Director Burshtein and Noa Koler succeed when they keep the focus on our heroine. She’s insecure, but knowingly supports her mission. Doubt smacks her around the Middle East and all the way to the Ukraine. Plus, her poor mother seems to be losing her mind. Will it work out?
At this point, I applaud any film like this that dares to question its situation. It’s too easy to setup a story about a woman or man taking on impossible odds and just expecting things to work out. Whatever happened to adversity? The film ended as I expected, but the journey is so incredibly worth it. That being said, I wanted to take a moment here to talk about why I’m covering this film.
The Wedding Plan is debuting this weekend as a Louisville exclusive at Village 8. Village 8 is a decades old theater that functions as a dollar house/arthouse combo. While the city is lucky to have seen this great cinema survive into 2017, it need your butt in a seat. Taking a back from streaming and seeing a movie in a real theater is a way to fight back against dwindling media choices. Go out this weekend and see “The Wedding Plan”. Hell, stay a little longer and go see “I Daniel Blake” too! It beats going to sleep in Pirates 5: Dead Pirates That Aren’t So Dead.
FILM STATS
- PG
- 1 hr and 50 mins
- Roadside Attractions