This
South African rom-com is pretty fun. I’ve
seen/read enough of Trevor Noah’s stuff to recognize some of the particular
South African cultural aspects of it, but really, it’s wedding mishaps meets
disastrous road trip, all in an engaging package.
It’s the
week of Elvis and Ayanda’s wedding, and Elvis is on the other side of the
country. He and his best friend/best man
Tumi think they have plenty of time to make the 1000-mile cross-country drive,
but as you can imagine, one thing leads to another and they keep meeting
various roadblocks, both literal and metaphorical; things get even more
complicated when they pick up a jilted would-be bride on the road. Meanwhile, Elvis’s fiancée Ayanda is left to
handle all the preparations in Cape Town on her own, dealing with a demanding
wedding planner and a mother who refuses to accept that her daughter wants a “white
wedding” (i.e. a fancy ceremony in the city) instead of an everyone’s-invited
blowout in the township.
It’s
pretty much everything you’d expect from a wedding comedy: arguments over the guest list, the wedding
dress in peril, an ex conveniently hanging around, last-minute crises, and just
enough misunderstanding to make the future bride and groom doubt one another’s commitment. That said, it also involves a live goat as a
wedding present, so it still keeps you on your toes.
Similarly,
the characters are familiar archetypes but are still entertaining. Ayanda is very put-together, holding up
masterfully under the ludicrous stress she’s forced to endure, and there are
definitely times you wonder why she’s with Elvis, who seems like a decent
enough guy but not an obvious choice for her.
(At the same time, though, I appreciate that Tony, the ex of hers that’s
sniffing around, is neither a blatant bad guy or presented as the clear “right” guy for her.) Elvis’s friend Tumi is enjoyable, the typical
funny best friend with bad judgment who keeps getting the more straitlaced
protagonist in trouble.
Jodie
Whittaker plays Rose, a young woman who came to visit a friend in South Africa
after her engagement fell apart. A surprise
subsequent falling-out with that friend leaves her with her own cross-country
trip to Cape Town, where she needs to be in a few days in order to make her
flight back home. Along the way, she
crosses paths with Elvis and Tumi, and after first sneaking into their car at a gas station, she cajoles them into
giving her a lift.
Before I
go any further, I don’t care how depressed, desperate, and/or naïve Rose is –
who on earth tries to hide in a
stranger’s car? It’s just blindingly
dumb, and the only reason I don’t hold it too much against Rose as a character
is because it simply does not seem like a thing any rational human being would
do, so that makes it a writing problem.
For the life of me, I don’t know why they didn’t have her corner the
guys at the gas station and beg them to take her with them.
Other
than that, however, I mostly like Rose.
Her present circumstances have made her rather self-absorbed regarding
her problems, and she’s certainly painted as an inexperienced tourist who doesn’t
really know what’s what, but it’s largely done in a humorous manner and seems
to fit her character for the most part.
I especially enjoy her bonding with the aforementioned wedding-present
goat Elvis and Tumi acquire halfway through the road trip.
Accent Watch
Northern.
Recommend?
In
General
– I think so, for anyone who likes romantic comedies. This is a fairly fun one.
Jodie
Whittaker
– Again, I think so. Rose isn’t the most
complicated character out there, but she’s entertaining to watch, and it’s a
good-sized role.
Warnings
Sexual
content, language (including South African racial slurs,) drinking/smoking,
some violence, and thematic elements.
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