Wedding movies are a lot like wedding cakes: usually delicious, satisfying and a tad overstuffed. So it’s nice to get a slice of that savory formula in “We Broke Up,” writer/director Jeff Rosenberg‘s entry to the Wedding genre.
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The usually bright and bubbly Aya Cash is cast as the sad, lovelorn leading lady Lori, and she takes to the role with ease and grace. Cash shows her range while holding the film together, which is a worst-case scenario wedding come-to-life.
Lori’s been with Doug (William Jackson Harper) for over ten years, but when he asks her to marry him, she throws up on the spot. The problem for the pair–besides their long silences, lack of chemistry and now fractured relationship– is the timing of the breakup, which occurs just three days before Lori’s sister’s wedding. Doug insists on going to the wedding with or without Lori, a decision that results in a comedy of errors dressed as a comedy of manners, because it’s the manners that lead to most of the errors.
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There’s a bit of a twist a la the Ryan Reynolds/Sandra Bullock rom-com “The Proposal,” which sported the tagline “here comes the bribe.” One has to assume Rosenberg was inspired by that film, in which Bullock pretends to be Reynold’s wife, fabricating a bouquet of lies in order to trick his family into thinking they are a couple. In “We Broke Up,” Lori and Doug decide to hide the breakup from the wedding guests, faking their relationship until things are all sorted out.
But things never go as planned in Wedding movies, as you already know. “We Broke Up” throws every obstacle you can think of at the duo, from love interests to prying parents to awkward small talk about how great they are as a couple. Rosenberg cranks up the cringe to 11, piling on one oh, no moment after another, until all you can do is either cover your eyes, or embrace the second-hand embarrassment of Doug making summer plans with Lori’s grandparents, who he will probably never see again.
Also cringe-worthy is the bride, Bea (Sarah Bogler), and groom, Jayson (Tony Cavalero), who met just a month ago and are already in love. At least their love is supposed to be cringe-worthy, but Jayson’s passion is so clear and strong, and Calvero’s performance so gosh-darn likable (he’s like a mix between a golden retriever and a surfer dude pastor), that their spur-of-the-moment vows feel honest and even inspiring. If anything, they are more interesting than Lori and Doug, as are most couples at this weekend retreat.
Because this is a packed ensemble and a joke-driven movie, the characterizations are fairly thin. We don’t know much about Lori, just that she isn’t ready for marriage. Though the casting of Cash opposite Harper makes sense, and the performances make us believe in the pair, we aren’t given any reason to believe they were once a happy couple. There are no flashbacks to the golden years. But perhaps in Wedding movies, the past isn’t as important as the present, and the only thing that matters is finding happiness in the here and now. Love, for all its wonderful complications, is just the icing on the cake. [C+]