By Anisha Koilpillai
“The Wedding Pact” sits comfortably in the Romantic Comedy section on Netflix. However, this isn’t a film I would recommend. Granted, I purposely watched it because of the low recommended rating, but I figured a movie that high into my recommendations list would be half decent. I was wrong.
The cast of the movie isn’t a spectacular one; it contained no one that I knew right away other than Haylie Duff, and that’s really only because of her younger sister Hilary. Thus, I wasn’t really sure what to expect in that regards.
Nonetheless, after watching the film, I can say that Duff was really the only actor who actually acted half decently. No one else stood out as spectacular, and scenes that were obviously trying to be emotional lacked emotion.
Let’s dive into the plot, shall we? “The Wedding Pact” opens the day before the college graduation of best friends Elizabeth and Mitch; the two had met on move-in day and quickly became best friends.
In the most predictable character development I have ever seen, it is quickly made known to the audience that Mitch had had a crush on Elizabeth from the beginning. Mitch and Elizabeth talk about their plans after graduation, and the wedding pact is then formed. Both agree that if 10 years have gone by and they were both still single, then they would get married.
Of course, Mitch says that he entertained the idea for a little bit, but he genuinely tried to be in relationships. However, none of them were successful. Shocker. So when his old college friend, Dave, swings by and informs Mitch that Elizabeth has never gotten married, Mitch embarks on a cross-country journey to visit her.
After several miscommunications with Dave in terms of where Elizabeth could be, Mitch finally ends up in Pasadena, where he is reunited with Elizabeth. In yet another obvious plot development, Mitch quickly finds out that Elizabeth is going to get married in 10 days time. Her fiancé, Jake, turns out to be a jerk, which is, again, just so very shocking. Jake and Mitch end up clashing quite a bit, and Mitch and Elizabeth become closer as they catch up on the lost years between them.
Of course, Elizabeth finds out an inkling of how much of a jerk Jake can be, and she runs away from her wedding. She then makes the cross-country journey to be reunited with Mitch, and the two make plans to get married later that day.
The acting was terrible. The edits were unique but terrible. The music wasn’t that great. The flashback sequence that Elizabeth has when she realizes that she loves Mitch and not Jake was yet another predictable aspect of the movie.
The movie was not funny at all, thus really ruining the comedy part of romantic comedy. If you like predictability, then this movie is for you. The ending was something I predicted before I even clicked on the movie. If you like watching bad movies, then go for it. But, if you’re expecting something more spontaneous than I recommend something else.
