DESTINATION WEDDING

US, 2017, 82 minutes, Colour.
Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves.
Directed by Victor Levin.

Destination Wedding is a two-hander, an opportunity for Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves to play off each other. And, play off each other they do.

They meet at an airport, some conflict about pushing in in queues, seats on a plane, general hostility between the two. They are attending the same wedding and it emerges that Keanu Reeves plays the groom’s brother. The groom was also the former fiance of Winona Ryder.

Throughout the brief running time, they continue to fight with each other, verbal and emotional battles. They are reluctant to attend all the details of the wedding and spend a lot of time with each other, eventually some kind of connection, sharing of opinions, attraction.

The screenplay seems to indicate that there will be some further contact after the wedding.

1. The title, this kind of marriage-event in the United States? Guests, exotic destination, travel? The program, participation? The return?

2. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, airports, flights, the town itself, the wedding, restaurants? The final apartments? The musical score?

3. A film of irony, parody, the tone of the captions explaining what was happening?

4. The stars, their working together in the past, now in middle age?

5. The brevity of the film, the strength of the dialogue, sardonic and ironic, the wit, enabling the couple to spar, there are ups and downs, criticisms of each other?

6. Meeting at the airport, the cheating and getting ahead in the line, the small plane, the seats, wine spilt? Picked up at the airport, as guests, their rooms, the meals together, their observing and critical conversation? The past, the engagement, the half-brother of the groom? Their bitter memories, caustic comments?

7. Their jaundiced views of the world, of life, of relationships? Their arguments? Scoring off each other? The cumulated effect of this banter? The sexual encounter?

8. Each of their reactions to the sexual encounter, she romantic, he sardonic? Raising of the possibilities, his rejection?

9. The wedding, the aftermath, leaving, promising never to see each other again? At the airport? The plane ride?

10. The departure and separation at the airport, the after-effect on each of them, his knocking on her door…?