I’ll be honest here, I’ve only even heard of this movie because it was mentioned on a podcast one time. Why is that? Have any of you heard of this? You’d assume it got a limited (and US only) release, but no one seems to know. Not even Wikipedia, apparently. So let’s delve into whether or not it’s worth the watch.
Table 19 actually has a pretty simple – but potentially hilarious – premise. The ensemble cast of pretty big comedy names are invited to a wedding. ‘Table 19’ refers to the table that our protagonists are assigned to, a.k.a. the last table on the list. That’s right: there are nineteen tables at this wedding and that’s where they’re sitting. None of the guests at this table even know each other, barring one couple (Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson) whose own marriage is on the rocks. The movie itself becomes a comedy by way of the characters figuring each other out, and finding out how they know the bridge and groom.
Great cast with a low budget premise, that’s for sure. It’s a shame the content isn’t all that entertaining. There’s the odd funny moment and some humorous exchanges between characters, but the tone here is weird. It’s clearly an attempt at a dark comedy but ends up just feeling as awkward as the guests at table 19. In that regard, there’s a lot of hit and miss here.
Sloppy, messy, and a little bit baffling in its plot, everything here spins out of control pretty quickly… and not in a good way. There’s a visible effort to make this meaningful but it generally ends up falling on deaf ears. By the end, I was not entirely sure what the point of this movie was, and if the writers had stuck to keeping this as a pure, unadulterated comedy rather than forcing a half-arsed plot out of it, it may have been a little more successful.
I really wanted to like this, which only makes it all the more disappointing. Usually there’s some saving grace like a great soundtrack, but even the music didn’t fill me with joy. In fact, it was just as forgettable as the jokes.
Table 19 overall is made pretty well with a truly great cast, but overwhelmingly forgettable due to a poor script and humour that doesn’t quite hit the right notes.
Table 19 is available to rent on Amazon and YouTube for £3.49 in the UK.
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