Eleanor Tomlinson and Sam Claflin in Love Wedding Repeat

Directed by: Dean Craig

Starring: Sam Claflin, Olivia Munn, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aisling Bea

Runtime: 1h40min

The potential of Love Wedding Repeat to provide simple-to-follow instructions for roundabout fun are right there in the title. The wedding of Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson) brings together a menagerie of likeable, or at least always, entertaining characters. Relatives, friends, one-time flames and unwelcome guests all crop up.

It’s nothing revolutionary in terms of the wedding rom-com genre – naturally lending a vibrant setting where love and all vaguely connected emotions are at their most potent. But there’s a neat twist in Love Wedding Repeat (again, remember those words) that could offer endless and infuriatingly good comedy.

It’s a shame then that this device is only deployed once – over half of the film plays out with one straightforward linear narrative. It’s charming and involving, with Sam Claflin as Hayley’s brother Jack on a rescue mission to save the wedding while finally making up for lost time with the one who got away.

The film mainly revolves around the eight people sat one table at dinner – the English table, as Hayley’s new husband is from Italy and this is where the story takes place – and the revolving doors of fate that could let any one chain of events collapse if just one decision was made differently.

You’ve seen it before: Sliding Doors, Groundhog Day and more. That’s not to say it’s a bad idea – the maddening bad luck and wishful romance is deployed with dedication here, each actor flexing their comedic chops (Aisling Bea in particular as Rebecca is brilliant with every word), but it’s curious as to why the idea of infinite outcomes and the randomness of life (the script shamelessly talks about how “random” things are a handful of times) isn’t actually explored.

As a light and airy romcom full of clumsy but ultimately still carefree people, Love Wedding Repeat is successful in its low-stakes ambition. But when the dream of something so much more dextrous and ultimately devastating is right there, it’s reminiscent of the most frustrating part of all the best weddings – the cake looks divine, but is actually just a little bland.