Nightmare Wedding (2016 TV Movie)
5/10
"Normal, Average, and Ugly"
8 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Sandy, the film's protagonist, is a young perfectionist. At the end of what she believes is the "perfect date" with Maximillion (Max), she comes to believe that they will also have the "perfect wedding." But Max's best friend Roman, who had a brief affair with Sandy before she met Max, has other ideas. The film is about Max disrupting the perfect wedding in a bid to win back Sandy.

There are echoes of Shakespeare in this film with Roman poisoning the ears of other characters, driving a wedge between them and instilling in them a jealous stupor in the way that Iago dupes Othello. In Roman's twisted mind, he also believes that he and Sandy are star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet. An early scene in the film depicts Roman speaking up to Sandy standing on her balcony. But the words he speaks are closer to baloney!

The analogy with Shakespeare does not go far in this tawdry drama. The main problem is that the characters are uniformly unlikable. The most intriguing character is Lisa, who is Sandy's "bestie." Lisa is feisty and blunt, recognizing early on that Roman poses a threat to her friend's marriage. Unfortunately, Lisa confronts Roman while they are standing on the edge of a cliff. His gentle nudge, which pushes her over the precipice, serves to write Lisa out of the script.

Even the lead characters are a motley crew. Sandy's sister Megan (Meggars) is riddled with envy for the love that was showered upon her baby sister by their mother, Lark. While the mom has a better moral compass than her children, her own life was no model: for years, she turned her eye away from a philandering husband. Meggars too will fall prey to Roman's oily charms, adding to the nightmare of the wedding weekend. The groom, Max, is drunk for a good portion of the weekend and is hopelessly naive to the machinations of his "best man" Roman.

It is difficult even to find much to admire in Sandy. She is called "Miss Perfection" in the film, but she is deeply flawed in her less than perfect actions. Her failure to tell Max the truth about Roman early in their relationship had consequences when he shows up as Max's best man. In a wild auto chase up a mountain canyon, which is the site of the film's climax, Sandy finally admits that she is not perfect, but is only "normal, average, and ugly." One might add to the list childish, irresponsible, and selfish, as she allows Roman to wreak havoc on her life.
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