A thirty-something eternal bridesmaid goes on an empowering and often hilarious journey of self-discovery.
Nellie (Leah McKendrick) is a millennial woman who likes to party. She panics when those around her start getting married and starting families while she is newly single. With added pressure from her dad wanting her to give him grandkids, she decides to freeze her eggs and see if she can find a partner to settle down with.
Everyone can relate to feeling like they are not meeting society’s social standards. I’m in my mid-20s, and some of my friends already own houses and are starting families. While comparing yourself to others isn’t healthy, it is a human thing to do. We want to feel like we are “succeeding” in life.
Nellie is an Etsy jewelry designer who somehow can afford to live in L.A. She realizes she can’t keep being a one-night stand after seeing a Scarface poster in her lover’s bathroom (who puts a Scarface poster in their bathroom?). She feels like she still needs to grow up but isn’t sure she wants to be a mother yet. Her friend stresses her experience of having a kid in her 40s was quite costly with IVF, which eventually makes Nellie decide to freeze her eggs. But freezing your eggs is also quite expensive.
Nellie is also trying to find a boyfriend, so she dates her exes to see if they can rekindle their relationship, but it doesn’t pan out. They are aptly nicknamed “The Prom King” and “Nice Guy” etc. They are funny little vignettes in the film. Needless to say, she made the right move by dumping these guys.
I’ve never heard of Leah McKendrick before, but I did like her performance as our protagonist. She also wrote and directed this film. While the direction in the movie didn’t necessarily stand out to me, I thought the writing was solid.
I also enjoyed Nellie’s friend, Sheila (Ego Nwodim), and wished we saw more about her character journey. She is one of Nellie’s newlywed and pregnant friends, but the film implies the transition for her may have been a bit of a struggle.
Of course, not all the jokes landed. I thought the film was a bit too quippy at times. I also thought Nellie’s family dynamic could have been expanded more. We get a solid idea of what her father is like, who is a lot and can be pretty annoying, but not as much into her relationship with her mother or brother.
While this comedy never quite made me laugh out loud, it does have some relatable moments and some quippy one-liners. Some things feel clichéd, especially towards the end, but that is to be expected for a first feature. Overall, I found the film to be solid but also a bit too paint-by-numbers.
In Theaters Friday, February 2nd
