The People We Hate at the Wedding Is a Movie to Ignore in the Background

The Stream: Laughs are few and family movie cliches are in abundance

The Big Screen: It has a short runtime and doesn’t drag on too much

The Final Bill: A bland, forgettable laugh-free comedy that badly mimics other family comedies
– Trip Fontaine
Director: Claire Scanlon
Writers: Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux based on a novel by Grant Ginder
Stars: Allison Janney, Kristen Bell, Ben Platt, Cynthia Addai-Robinson
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R for sexual content and language
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
Production Companies: Amazon Studios, FilmNation Entertainment, Wishmore
Platform: Prime Video released on November 18, 2022

Okay, Streamers, we have a lot of family movies coming out around this time. Studios are putting out their Christmas fare early. There are those romantic comedies and so many other films that are supposed to appeal to broad audiences as the families get together for the holidays. Amazon released on Prime Video a family comedy based on a novel with the same name, The People We Hate at the Wedding. Here’s how the wedding bells tolled.

I’m going to be honest, friends. I don’t want to waste my time writing a review of The People We Hate at the Wedding. It is such a nothing movie that I don’t even want to write the premise. Fine – Alice (Kristen Bell) and Paul (Ben Platt) travel to their estranged, half-sister, Eloise’s (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) wedding in England. Alice and Paul are American and are struggling in their personal and professional lives while Eloise grew up in England and seemingly leads a posh and perfect existence. Alice, Paul and their mother, Donna (Allison Janney), who is also Eloise’s mother, go to the wedding begrudgingly. Disastrous hijinks ensue.

Actually, that synopsis was too long for this bland, unfunny movie. Everything you think will happen from the set up happens. Sorry to spoil it for you, Streamers. The worst part of the movie is that even though it is predictable, it could at least be funny but it’s NOT. I like Kristen Bell, Ben Platt and Allison Janney. None of them can save this movie. Allison Janney does the best of those three, but she really doesn’t have much to do either. The title of the movie gives you a clue that you will dislike these people, but there’s really no redeeming value in them anyway. So, what’s the point.

Ultimately, The People We Hate at the Wedding is not a good movie. It is pretty boring and definitely not funny. You could have this playing in the background during Thanksgiving dinner because you don’t have to pay attention to it to know exactly what’s going on and what’s going to happen. Yep, this is definitely only a one popped kernel, but only because I can’t say it’s awful.