‘The Wedding Guest’ stars Dev Patel (‘Lion’, ‘Hotel Mumbai’) as Jay. This time around he's a mysterious British/Muslim man travelling across Pakistan and India trying to kidnap a future bride, in a series of twists, turns and international espionage - but Jay has dark secrets of his own.
The movie is all just a little generic and basic; it was never captivating and feels bogged down by its narrative. Patel once again proves his acting chops even though there is very little to grab onto here. The movie does have potential from its aesthetics to its acting talent, but it just seems everyone hopped on the wrong train.
'THE WEDDING GUEST' TRAILER
The movie on paper sounds simple: a mysterious man comes to a country to kidnap someone, while in the meantime people are after him. We get a series of double-crosses and twists, pretty basic stuff. Somehow, however the film isn’t necessary hard to follow, it's just wildly unenthralling.
Dev Patel is however still great; I really want to see him play a bad guy in a better movie (maybe he should have been Jafar in the new ‘Aladdin’). Patel has had a great career so far, but while he has been in breakout movies, I feel the breakout role for him is still just around the corner.
Dev Patel once again proves his acting chops even though there is very little to grab onto here.
The film has a small cast including Indian actress Radhika Apte playing Samira, the bride that Jay has to kidnap and Jim Sarbh as Jay’s boss, who is orchestrating the whole situation. Both are in some of their first English-speaking movies and do fine - they aren’t given much to other than moving the plot along.
‘The Wedding Guest’ isn’t the worst thriller of all time, it’s just dull and uninspiring. If you need to be reminded of Patel’s talents and have 90 minutes to kill then it's fine, otherwise you might want to attend a different wedding.