The Wedding Unplanner at the Spanish Film Festival
Addy Fong went to check out The Wedding Unplanner at the Spanish Film Festival in Sydney, and it caused her to consider the problem with romantic comedies:
Like most, I enjoy watching the odd romantic comedy, trashy reality TV show or cliché-ridden sitcom that celebrates the outsider or the oddball. After a long day of work, I love nothing more than indulging in the predictable feel-good genre of romantic comedy, where conflict between characters is easily resolved before the introduction of some sort of awkward in-film dance sequence, or a scene featuring the characters finally realising their feelings about each other and a whole lot of running. There’s always that long scene in the movie in which the character runs to their love to confess their feelings, which I don’t really understand to be honest, I would probably just shoot over a message and let them know I need to talk and walk rather than risk some sort of choking fit from the sudden urge to run and confess my feelings.
Dani de la Orden’s The Wedding Unplanner plays upon the tropes of romantic comedy, with the film’s opening scene featuring a little girl watching a Spanish telenovela only to be disrupted by a crushing reality; her father explains that relationships are near impossible and that most marriages end up in divorce so in essence: love is dead.
The plot is thus, Marina (Belén Cuesta), a wedding planner who loves her job because of the income it generates, unsuspectingly falls in love with a mysterious and handsome Carlos (Alex Garcia) at a wedding. The thing is Carlos is already engaged to another woman, Alexia (Silvia Alonso) who turns out to be Marina’s childhood classmate. Instead of manning up and confessing about his infidelity, Carlos decides the best course of action is to propose to Alexia and ask Marina to help them plan the wedding because as they say, a marriage based on lies is sure to last (sic).
Faithful to the trope of the romantic comedy the story brings together our two protagonists, star crossed lovers Marina and Carlos, who upon meeting for the first time at a wedding which features fairy lights, cheesy music, and a whole lot of dancing, decide that being attractive justifies the reason for sleeping together. Obviously, this intimate act means they are in love because that’s how romance works in rom coms. Qualities of romantic genre as seen in the look of the film include the use of shallow depth of field, soft focus, the use of moving camera to evoke a dream like quality to the feel of the film in essence portraying the character’s feelings or mood within the frame, that they are suddenly trapped by the spells of romance and emotionally swept up by the infatuation of another.
Watching the absurd predictability of romance-related hijinks play out in rom coms is one of my guilty pleasures. Unashamedly, I enjoy the notion of feeling swept up in the predictable, stories about star-crossed lovers, easily gunning for the underdog and booing supporting characters whose existence in the story is a mere hinderance to the so-called happiness of the protagonists. For many of us as viewers, we tend to support the main character, often looking past their flaws and accepting problematic plot points because we seek the happiness of the film’s lead at the sacrifice, or the betrayal of those who have become collateral damage within the story.
Another element of any rom com is cliched and overly-used dialogue, including the classic lines, ‘my life would be awfully boring without you in it’ and ‘I can’t get you out of my head’ as used in Dani de la Orden’s The Wedding Unplanner. These lines suggest that Marina and Carlos share a romantic connection which although effective in communicating the intended meaning, are cliched and make a film feel stale and bland.
Fictional storylines found in rom coms allow audiences to easily dismiss problematic points of infidelity and forgive any problematic behaviour of a film’s protagonist, we somehow accept their faults and toxic behaviours because we as the audience will always support the hero no matter what. The hurt associated with the betrayal of a significant other is something I think that needs to be considered even if briefly.
Two other films which touch on this idea include Paul Weiland’s Made of Honor (2008) a film that follows a similar storyline to The Wedding Unplanner (2020) in which there is an engaged couple who split up after one of the engaged parties seeks satisfaction elsewhere, and Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck (2015) whose main female lead is non-committal and focused on her career just as Marina was prior to meeting Carlos in The Wedding Unplanner.
These films present a light-hearted look at tropes of romantic comedy, generously looking past infidelity and dishonesty amongst relationships, which is highly problematic as the protagonist is rewarded when a writer’s story celebrated the fact that relationships are like transactions, easily exchanged. Although it could be argued the thrill of being the other man or woman and sneaking around lends itself to humorous moments in the rom com genre the reality is that much of this creates mistrust in relationships which once broken can be difficult to fix.
The opening scenes of The Wedding Unplanner and Trainwreck paint a truly depressing reality with fathers speaking to their daughters that apparently, most marriages end in divorce and monogamy in relationships is impossible because commitment is boring, and life is better when relationships are interchangeable. Long gone is the fairy-tale happily ever after ending after we’ve all grown up believing. The rose-coloured glasses once worn by viewers have now fallen off, but I like to hold on to the hope that romance, fate and love still exists to some extent because without it, life would be depressing.
I believe that real romantic relationships can exist beyond initial attraction between two interested parties. Ideas of faithfulness and loyalty are often glazed over in rom-coms and these films dismiss the fact that all relationships whether romantic or platonic requires time, dedication, and hard work to last. Whilst the romantic comedy’s simplistic look at relationships is merely written for comedic effect, I’ve recently noticed that trust and faithfulness which I’ve been told is the core of any long-lasting relationship seems to be almost non-existent in the rom-com world.
In The Wedding Unplanner the lack of trust between Carlos and Alexia is evident with Carlos’ secretive behaviour shown throughout the film, his inability to take ownership of his infidelity, and more specifically the fact that Marina as the other woman has to shamedly run around the house naked to avoid revealing their scandalous secret to the group. Thankfully De la Orden presents this scene in a light-hearted manner along with many comedically timed near misses between the three main characters throughout, which seems to lighten the tone of what would be considered messy and complicated in real life.
Throughout the film, I thought that Carlos clearly needed to take some sort of ownership regarding his behaviour and not leave Marina vulnerable to being possibly slut-shamed for something that they both clearly had a role in. Romantic comedy’s idea of the other woman, or the idea there is another romantic interest that is better suited to the protagonist, makes light of a possible act of betrayal or infidelity committed by the protagonist. Audiences are often sympathetic to the protagonist’s desire for change, easily dismissing any flaws in their character and placing the reasoning on fate as justification for what would be considered a morally questionable act.
My criticism here of romantic comedy is not to dampen what is a truly enjoyable genre to watch especially after a long day, when you might be looking for some mindless fun, but to bring light the fact that often as audience members we may be swept up in the belief in star-crossed lovers or fate audiences justifies an emotionally driven fling that won’t last beyond the film’s 90-minute runtime.
If I am to believe in the love that is presented to me in movies and pin my hopes in clichéd romances that bring forth warm feelings of inclusivity, sweet acts of kindness and the so called happily ever after, the romantic comedy genre needs to improve on how a script’s plot is derived. What is the first thing that can be improved you ask to make things more believable? Perhaps we could stop with the running scenes in rom coms, if I want to say something to someone I’ll gladly walk.
Review by Addy Fong.
For information about all of the films playing at the Spanish Film Festival across Australia, head here.
