THE ROMANTICS – Sundance Movie Review

THE ROMANTICS centers on seven close friends ever since college, who reconvene to attend the wedding of two of their own, Lila (Anna Paquin) and Tom (Josh Duhamel). Lila’s college roomate and best friend, Laura (Katie Holmes), is the maid of honor, but the thing is, Laura is also Tom’s ex-girlfriend, whom she is obviously still not over.

The story then unfolds during the night before the wedding as the friends hang out and each go through their own experiences. In addition to Lila, Laura and Tom, we also meet married couple Tripler (Malin Akerman) and Pete (Jeremy Strong), boyfriend/girlfriend Jake (Adam Brody) and Weesie (Rebecca Lawrence), Lila’s brother Chip (Elijah Wood) and sister Minnow (Dianna Agron).

While we do see some of the other characters in and out, the film mainly focuses of the relationship between Tom and Laura, and the dynamic with Lila.

I personally enjoyed The Romantics, however it’s not something that everyone will like. Nothing much happens, mostly it’s a lot of conversations between characters about how their life and how they feel, which is something I like in a movie. And so in that type of movie, having actors that can deliver strong performances is key.

I am a fan of Anna Paquin and it was a lot of fun seeing her in The Romantics, especially since her part as Lila has so pretty funny moments, because her character tries to keep it together in some pretty crazy situations. Katie Holmes is also very likeable as Laura and I sort of found myself rooting for her a bit, even though in the end I ended up not siding with either of the ladies.

Josh Duhamel plays sort of a ladies man who’s very confused as to what he wants in life, which oddly enough, I think might appeal to the ladies in the audience. But I think the scene stealer in the film has to be Elijah Wood, who even though doesn’t have that many scenes, is not memorable as Chip, but hilarious. The rest of the cast also does pretty good in the few scenes they have, although I would have liked the relationship between the characters to have been explored a little more.

Overall, this is not a movie that will appeal to everyone, but if you feel like watching a simple film that takes place one day in the lives of seven friends, you might enjoy The Romantics.