On her way to her ex-fiancée’s ‘destination wedding’, Lindsay (Winona Ryder) encounters an unpleasant man at the airport who turns out to be her ex’s brother, Frank (Keanu Reeves). The ‘black sheep’ of the family, Frank despises his brother and doesn’t seem to have much love for the rest of his dysfunctional family… or anyone else for that matter. The two are at odds immediately, but circumstances continue to push them together despite their best efforts to stay apart.
Destination Wedding is essentially ninety minutes of Lindsay and Frank bickering. They bicker over how Frank ditches Lindsay in line in the airport, they bicker over how unimpressive each other’s jobs are. They bicker over the concept of love and happiness and life in general. Both are incredibly cynical people, and after a while, it begins to feel like they’re trying to one-up each other with who is the most miserable. For example, Lindsay claims that she suffered from PTSD after being dumped by the groom years earlier, leading to another discussion over whether or not wealthy people should be allowed to complain about their ridiculous problems when there is actual suffering in the world.
While I could understand why Frank has decided to attend this wedding, I could not, for the life of me, figure out Lindsay’s motivation… then again, she admits she is a negative person, so it makes sense to attend an ex-fiancée’s wedding, whom she once sued, for purely masochistic reasons.
One would think that after a while this schtick would get old, but Keanu and Winona are both just so charming that it merely teeters on the edge of becoming frustratingly annoying and remains amusing instead. You can tell by the brisk and sometimes tense interactions between their characters that they are comfortable in these roles, and their decade’s long friendship shines through the chemistry between Frank and Lindsay. Ryder is expressive and jittery, while Reeves plays the straight man with dead-pan matter-of-factness. These two people are so wrong for each other, but at the same time, perfect.
I understand that the movie belongs solely to Frank and Lindsay, but I would have liked to see a little interaction between the two and any of the other wedding guests. Frank’s family, the new bride, perhaps just a friend of the bride or groom. No one seemed to realize Frank and Lindsay were even there.
Destination Wedding has a few laughs including an encounter with a mountain lion and the R-rating stems from some lengthy humorous profanity and the most unsexy sex you’ll ever see in a rom-com. But it’s worth a watch, even if I would have liked a little bit more from the film, especially when it stars two film legends like Winona and Keanu.
