THE WEDDING INVITATION: Furiously Funny Female Driven Rom-Com
The Wedding Invitation is Rainy Kerwin’s debut feature film which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in as the lead role, Lucy. Best friends Ryann and Nectar are played by Camille Guaty and Christina Ulloa in this romantic comedy about three women searching for dates to the wedding of the decade.
With an all too familiar beginning, reminiscent of Legally Blonde when Elle (Reese Witherspoon) believes her boyfriend is going to propose at a special dinner but in a total surprise moment, he breaks their relationship off. The two movies then veer off in totally different directions. To make matters worse for Lucy, Marcus (Chris Mollica) also happens to be her boss and fires her as well.
Then another blow strikes when she finds out her best friends were invited to the wedding of the decade – Denise Masterson’s, the coolest girl from high school, 80’s themed wedding, and her invitation never arrived. With no boyfriend, no job and no invitation to the highly anticipated wedding, Lucy goes into depression and her friends are tasked with redirecting her attention.
When Lucy gets a call from Denise Masterson (Kara Amanda Smith) herself, calling to get an RSVP from those she hadn’t heard back from about her big day, she not only tells Denise that she, Ryann and Nectar will be there but that they also are bringing dates. What follows is a hilarious and relatable pursuit of dating, in an attempt to find hot guys to bring to the wedding.
Adventures in Dating
These actresses were entertaining to watch. They had an onscreen chemistry with each other that played off as believable. Watching them interact, it’s easy to get the feeling that they’re really best friends. Kerwin wrote fun characters who know how to laugh at themselves, and sometimes cringe too. Each woman zeros in on a guy, or two, who could make potential good dates.
Guaty captivates the audience with her portrayal of Ryann as the quirky sidekick with an adorable sense about her. When she humiliates herself in front of her crush, she goes over the moment in her mind as she cringes in reaction to the memory. With as much as this happens in real life, where we have an embarrassing moment and re-live it in our minds as a cringe-worthy memory, it was nice to see it echoed on screen with such a talented actress at the helm.
Nectar (Ulloa) has a few mishaps with dating. As beautiful as she is, she’s meeting all Mr. Wrongs, failing to see what’s right in front of her face. Eventually she gets it right and has a genuine connection leading to her own embarrassing moment of humility, one many women (and their partners!) have found themselves in and can relate to, under the covers.
Of course Lucy (Kerwin) stumbles, falls, gets back up and stumbles a little more. While she’s not having any luck getting a new job, she ends up taking a step backwards in life and returns to her previous job. She’s in the midst of rebounding from her three year love affair with her former boss while she’s on the hunt for a date but ends up pursuing a serious crush instead.
While laughing out loud and nodding in sympathy for the characters, it was obvious these were relatable women characters written by a woman. Kerwin did not shy away from telling it like it is from the dialog, to the emotions and actions – she succeeded in showing a light-hearted glimpse about what dating is like from a woman’s perspective in this little world she created.
Let’s Get Technical
The Wedding Invitation is only one of two movies I’ve ever heard of that used an all female crew – the other one being Band Aid, the directorial debut from Zoe Lister-Jones. The entire crew did a fantastic job. It looks great, sounds great and has a talented cast that carried it all the way through with ease.
The production quality is top notch. The cinematography, by Alicia Robbins, is tight and scenes are well lit with the right touch of score to enhance the feel of the film. Even if it’s a little formulaic and maybe even a little cliché at parts, I challenge you to find me a rom-com that isn’t. This isn’t a shock-comedy with over the top raunchiness, but it has just the right touch of realism in it that satisfies the less prude audience members.
As Kerwin‘s directorial debut in which she also took on the lead role, writing credit and was one of the producers – she took on a colossal task and was met with success. Kerwin gave us a fun story executed by a brilliant cast.
In Conclusion
The Wedding Invitation is a romantic comedy with a little bit of raunchy humor, done well with strong female characters. There are definitely some laugh out loud moments. It would make for a great girls night out (or in!) flick or a fun date night movie that guys can enjoy too.
The Wedding Invitation is the first of three slated films for It’s Raining Films, so there’s more to come on the way and I look forward to watching Kerwin grow as a filmmaker.
What is your favorite female driven romantic comedy? Tell us in the comments below!
The Wedding Invitation is currently available on VOD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVEcCSDhW5U
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