Movie Review: A Costa Rican Wedding (2024)

Synopsis: Accident prone Emily considers her best friend, Phoebe, the best friend anyone could ever have. After all, Phoebe has been there for her through every disaster, including her recent breakup. That's why, with Phoebe preparing to get married on the beach in Costa Rica, Emily wants to use her maid of honor role to make it the best wedding ever. There's just one problem, in addition to being upstaged at every turn by Ryan, the wedding's best man, she also had a monkey steal her bag which, among other things, contained the wedding rings. Determined to make things right and reluctantly accepting Ryan's help, she enters the jungle to find them.

Who's in it? The movie stars Rhiannon Fish, Christopher Russell, Brittany Carel, CJ Hammond and Kourtney George.

Review: This wasn't our first choice for last night's movie night but neither my wife nor I liked the first film I picked out and, after turning it off five minutes later, I picked this as the backup. It ended up being an OK choice but also left me with mixed opinions.

I've seen Rhiannon Fish in a few Hallmark movies and think she's enjoyable to watch, especially when it comes to comedic roles. This film was no exception. She was able to pull off the slapstick that was needed to make Emily seem extra clumsy without crossing a line that made it hard to take her seriously when the scene called for it. 

Also, while somewhat predictable, I thought the sexual tension and eventual romance between Emily and Ryan (Russell) worked. They had decent chemistry, nothing seemed overly forced and I especially liked how the movie kept the reason they didn't seem to like each other a secret. I didn't know if it was a failed past relationship, an argument or something else that would add an obstacle.

I did find I had a couple issues with the movie though. For one, while I get the clumsiness, there were quite a few parts of Emily's "bad luck" that were just poor common sense. Losing the rings was a great example of this. I could believe it is possible to forget you had them after a long flight. I have a hard time believing you could forget you had them and not put them in a safe place after literally everyone made sure to not only remind you but to make a point of telling you they didn't trust you to keep them safe. That alone would have motivated me to relocate them ASAP.

On the same note, her friends and friends' families were actually quite mean. I mean, wow. There's a point when joking about someone's mistake-filled past just becomes cruel and this movie crossed that line fast. My wife and I both agreed between that and the way nobody seemed to take her feelings into consideration when they were quick to dismiss the things she had planned as maid of honor, she should have just cussed out her "friends" and left.

The other thing neither of us liked was how the movie seemed to rush the ending. Everything from the obligatory misunderstanding involving an ex to finding the rings and getting a cancelled wedding back on track was crammed into a very short amount of time. In fact, I'm not even sure what happened to the two who went in search of the missing pair. I think the filmmakers might have forgotten about them. In any case, there were plenty of unnecessary or repetitive scenes that could have been cut out to give the movie time to make the ending magical.

Final Opinion: The main characters and Fish's slapstick-style comedy made the movie watchable. However, the overall film didn't do a whole lot to take advantage of that and it ended up being average as a result.

My Grade: C