The Knot

Clearly intent on being a British Hangover/Bridesmaids hybrid, this comedy romp doesn't contain a single laugh. It doesn't help that all of the characters (except perhaps one) are deeply unlikeable, or that the humour is literally centred in the toilet. You have to wonder if anyone read the script before they started making the movie. Or maybe the filmmakers made it up as they went along.

It begins on the morning of a wedding, as bride Alex (Riley) and her bridesmaids (Suvari, Fielding and others) begin to get ready for the ceremony. Meanwhile, groom Jeremy (McNulty) wakes up to a series of pranks staged by his groomsmen (Clarke, Maza and others), plus threats from a crazed ex. Both of them have torturous routes to the church, with obstacles in the form of bodily functions, car crashes, a trip to the emergency room and general idiocy. Maybe these two shouldn't be tying the knot after all.

At least a few of the characters register as real human beings. Goldstein's hapless, hairy groomsman has some vaguely diverting moments that, if not actually funny, have a bit of originality to them due to the actor's full-on physicality. And Fielding's unhappy bridesmaid takes an interesting journey of self-discovery, even though she's subjected to a corny physical gag. Even so, the only likeable character is Riley's bride, who's a genuinely nice person with some depth. Everyone else is mindlessly self-involved and stereotypical, and most of the cast overact their characters into caricatures.

Even worst is the script's structure, which is so disconnected that it's impossible to make any links from scene to scene. It's as if the writers came up with a series of comedic set-pieces then half-heartedly pasted them into some semblance of a story. Which might have worked if the sequences were amusing. As it is, this is the kind of film that only late-night, drunken audiences will laugh at. Hopefully it's also the end of the adult-oriented marriage-related rom-com.

Rich Cline