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Anna Kendrick is back on the big screen in her latest comedy drama Table 19. This film is the story of the worst table at a wedding and the people who ended up there. The story does primarily center around Eloise (Kendrick), the former maid-of-honor who was recently dumped by the bride's brother, the rest of the cast of characters it more than a little amusing to watch on screen. Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson play a married couple a table 19 who have hit a rough patch in their marriage and are just trying to get through the day. Tony Revolori played Rezno, a young man who is desperately trying to hook up with a girl at this wedding to make his mom proud. We have Nanny Jo played by June Squibb, who may or may not be spending most of the wedding looking for a place to light up the weed she has in her purse. Lastly, we have the very tall, awkward, and fresh out of prison cousin Walter played bb Stephen Merchant. These 5 strangers manage to come together from the worst seat in the house to bring us a film that is both funny and oddly heartwarming.
Anna Kendrick's usual snark takes center stage as she works through every emotion in the book in this film. Everything from blind hatred to the soul crushing emotions that come with a bad break-up. Her former boyfriend and best man at the wedding is Teddy (Wyatt Russell), an overgrown man-child who you can tell from across the room likes being the life of the party and doesn't really seem to take much seriously, relationships included. The back and forth tension in this film between these two characters is both funny and relatable. The love/hate emotions are strong with these two characters. This grows ten-fold when mystery man Huck (Thomas Cocquerel) steps into the picture and kind of sweeps Eloise off her feet.
As we watch the lives of these 5 people unfold and we learn more about each of their situations we quickly start to realize this movie has a lot more real content to offer us that the usual slapstick fair of most romantic comedies. If nothing else this is a black comedy, which is great because you definitely aren't expecting it. Plus, this film takes a turn that I didn't expect to happen with several of the characters which are refreshing to see on the big screen. Is it a perfect, no, definitely not, but would I watch it again and recommend? Absolutely! It has some really great jokes and the characters are kind of delightful to see on screen.
This is a fun easy to watch film, which, let's face it, is a lot of the reason people like movies. We don't always need the ones that make us think too hard. Sometimes we just want a film we can watch, laugh, and relate to and Table 19 serves that up in droves. We scored it with a B because at the end of the day it was just the kind of movie I needed to see. It made me smile a lot, laugh a few times really hard, and almost shed a tear. Nothing is better than seeing a group of strangers make the most out of a bad situation. Check out Table 19 when it hits theaters everywhere March 3rd.
Rating: B
Table 19