2.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for occasional profanity, drug use, sexual candor and fleeting nudity
By Derrick Bang
Wedding guests often receive
inconsequential little favors: tchotchkes that may draw a smile or two in the
moment, but are quickly forgotten.
This movie is just such an item.
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| The misfits at Table 19 wonder what they've done, to be abandoned in the wedding reception's far corner: clockwise from left, Bina and Jerry Kemp (Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson), "Nanny Jo" (June Squibb), Walter Thimple (Stephen Merchant), Rezno Eckberg (Tony Revolori) and Eloise McGarry (Anna Kendrick). |
Filmmaking brothers Jay and Mark
Duplass are known for modest, character-driven comedies — such as Baghead and Jeff, Who Lives at Home — that feature eccentric folks who don’t
quite inhabit the real world. They’re somewhat familiar, in a
that-quiet-guy-next-door manner, but you’d probably avoid them in a social
situation.
Table 19, alas, is so insubstantial that it would
blow away during a soft breeze. The premise is droll but cramped, barely able
to drag its way through a mercifully short 85 minutes. Indeed, the film pretty
much runs out of gas after the first act, leaving its cast adrift in uncharted
waters.
Maybe that’s why the Duplass
boys, who generally helm their own material, farmed this one off to director
Jeffrey Blitz. Who, to be fair, does the best with what he’s got. Individual
moments of Table 19 are quite funny —
co-star Stephen Merchant is hilarious throughout — and the core plotline builds
to a an unexpectedly poignant conclusion.
But the film too frequently
struggles and flounders through awkward silences, much like the half-dozen
strangers thrust together at the “misfit table” during a wedding reception that
pretty much ignores them.
Until the last moment, Eloise
(Anna Kendrick) was the maid of honor for best friend Francie (Rya Meyers),
eagerly helping with all wedding and reception details. Eloise also was in a
steady relationship with Francie’s brother, Teddy (Wyatt Russell), serving as
best man. But that was then; after being dumped by Teddy — via text, no less —
Eloise was relieved of her duties and transformed into an instant persona non grata.
(Which, just in passing, seems shallow
on Francie’s part ... just as it seems weird that the best man would be her
brother. But I digress.)
Defiantly determined to attend
the blessed event anyway, Eloise duly arrives to find herself consigned to the
Siberia of reception regions: the dread, distant corner Table 19.
