Absolutely Fantastic

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Blistering performances.

It is a lovely film. It was not very predictable. The backstories of the characters were nicely done. Nothing is perfect, but this movie is very watchable. It is not exactly a comedy.. that is true, but a lovely movie none the less. I can't believe the low rating.. it deserves alot more. A fair assesment imo would be a 7 or 7.5, but I am giving it a 10 just for balance.

Eloise attends a wedding reception where her best friend is the bride and she is maid of honour - at least she was, until her boyfriend, the bride's brother and best man, dumped her. So now she is seated at table 19, the table occupied by those who should have just sent a gift while knowing better than to actually attend. Her companions are fellow misfits.The trailer clearly sells this as comedy but, notwithstanding some amusing moments, this really isn't a comedy at all. All the misfits have stories which are quite dark, especially Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson, whose marriage is in deep trouble. And Annie Kendrick's Eloise has a story which has a bit more to it than simply being dumped.It's all a bit inconsequential, though. There's enough to hold the attention, and there is some effective acting (Kudrow's mildly bitter wife is good) but, ultimately, the mix of mild amusement and patchy drama doesn't hang together particularly well - Stephen Merchant doesn't seem to have got the memo about it not really being a comedy, and plays it very broadly.This doesn't really succeed as a comedy or as a drama.

A romantic-comedy simply called 'Table 19'. How did I find myself watching this film you may ask? Well I was at the airport waiting for my flight, reading through Anna Kendrick's hilarious Twitter page. I then got on board, checked the movies available to watch and one of the first ones I saw was an Anna Kendrick movie. I thought if that isn't a sign of the first movie I should watch I don't know what is. Little did I know it would also have two of my favourite comedic actors in it, June Squibb and Stephen Merchant. Not to mention the rest of the cast was pretty good as well. So was the sign from above telling me I would love this film a correct one? Not quite.At times I just felt like the film was trying a little too hard. Then at other times I didn't feel like it was trying hard enough. Merchant and Squibb were fantastic (Squibb in particular - she carried the film for me) but I'm not sure they wrote Merchant's part overly well. There was one gag he had going at the start that simply went too long and didn't have enough pay-off to justify it. In the second half of the movie when his character freed up a bit he became much more effective. The director seemed to have a fascination with characters randomly falling down. Almost every character does it at some point. It was quite bizarre. I'm not sure if he was going for something, or if it was simply a case of there not having been a laugh in a while and it being a simple way to break the drought. There's a bit of a 'The Breakfast Club' feel to the film at times, and I love that every character has their secret and the way it slowly reveals one by one. The film gets a little darker occasionally than I expected it to.The flaws the film had were probably just not being funny enough often enough, and also I didn't love the way the movie ended in regards to Anna Kendrick's character 'Eloise'. I think they got that all wrong and if that was always the intended way for the film to end then they needed to handle things differently earlier on. It's not a bad watch, but it's sadly pretty forgettable.

Plot was a little slow to start and a couple annoying parts. The dialogue was hard to hear over the music at times. I noticed several abrupt cuts that could have used more transition switching between scenes and sets back and forth. I had low expectations so I was happily surprised to be laughing out loud.