Table 19 (5/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 89 minutes.

Not for children.

There is a line in the middle of the movie, spoken by an elderly lifelong Nanny, “The only girl’s name I can think of right now is Nicky.” And that’s the problem with this movie. There are too many lines and situations that are just not plausible, even for a rom com. Are we to believe that this woman can’t think of “Mary,” or “Judy,” or “Karen,” or, well, you get the idea. It’s a straight line put in so that Eloise McGarry (Anna Kendrick) can have a rejoinder, but the original line just is too absurd to care what Eloise replies.

There are some good performances, by Kendrick and her erstwhile boyfriend, Teddy (Wyatt Russell, who actually gives the best performance in the movie), and the others who occupy Table 19.

Table 19 is the worst table at the wedding of Anna’s best friend, who is Teddy’s sister, and it contains a bunch of people with problems, Walter (Stephen Merchant), who doesn't want people to know he just got out of jail, Bina Kepp (Lisa Kudrow) and her black husband Jerry (Craig Robinson) with whom she's bickering, Renzo Eckberg (Tony Revolori) whose mother realizes that he has problems meeting girls so forces him to attend the wedding, and the aforementioned Nanny, Jo Flanagan (June Squibb), with her own personal problem. They all give good performances, given what they are required to say and do.

What fell down for me was the script (Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass), as epitomized by the line above. The situations are too silly and trite to be  involving. On the plus side, it was less than 90 minutes long.