‘Destination Wedding’ is a relatable rom-com
“Destination Wedding” is exactly what you think it is: Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder talking at each other for 90 minutes.
Yes, it’s about destination weddings, and how presumptuous it is to ask guests to spend time and money on a weekend away to celebrate your love.
As a rom-com, it’s also about romance. And it happens to be pretty relatable.
“Destination Wedding” – out in New York and Los Angeles Aug. 31 and nationwide Sept. 7 – rang true for a perpetual wedding guest.
1. Attending the wedding of an ex to “be the bigger person”
In “Destination Wedding,” Lindsay (Ryder) goes solo to the destination wedding of her former fiance “for closure,” as she says. She winds up nauseated after greeting the groom and slams her head into a plate when she sees the newlyweds smooch.
Is anyone really keeping track of which person is “bigger” or “better”?
2. “Another sunset wedding” means imperfect weather
“Just what the world needs: another sunset wedding,” the pessimistic Frank (Reeves) grumbles as he and Lindsay head through a vineyard that isn’t exactly accessible.
They whine about how it’s “800 degrees” out, about how the seersuckersuited officiant was ordained online and about how walking up to the ceremony is a “liability.”
Lindsay even insists Frank carry her there.
Any regular wedding guest may have braved sun and soft ground in order to attend an outdoor exchanging of vows. But the photos at magic hour look beautiful.
3. Pre-wedding activities can be tiresome
“Destination Wedding” transitions from the Friday night rehearsal dinner to the Saturday morning “stupid (expletive) you would never do otherwise.” In Frank and Lindsay’s case, that’s get a foot massage recommended in the hotel welcome package, even though Frank doesn’t like having his feet touched.
But when you’re at a destination wedding, you don’t do your usual things. Wedding-guest life is nothing like regular life.
4. Wedding love inspires love
Spoiler alert: Although Frank and Lindsay despise each other at their first meeting in the airport, they wind up attracted to each other by the end of the weekend. A rom-com shocker!
According to Frank, the lone-wolf brother of the groom, his relationship with Lindsay is an “interlude … a small oasis of time in which we can taste intimacy like it’s a piece of free salami at Trader Joe’s.” It’s fleeting.
However, Lindsay asks: “What if there’s something to the idea of a destination wedding?
What if our real destination was each other?”
That may be the case for some lucky members of the wedding party.
But more likely: A wedding hook-up is over by Sunday brunch time.
As for how Frank and Lindsay’s relationship develops?
We won’t give that away here.