Rating: C
Dir: Navin Ramaswaran
Star: Martina Schabron, Mandy Magnan, Sean Irvine, Elena Zavet
A credible alternate title for this might be, Horrified Reaction Shots, Vol 1. That’s what you will mostly get (above) in its 71-minute duration. It unfolds virtually, on screen and on-screen, over the course of a family Zoom call. Daughter Jessica is getting married in Russia, to her fiancé, Adrik. It has been a bit of a lightning romance, the two meeting when Jessica was on holiday in Europe with her best friend, Maddy (Magnan). Now, the couple are ready to tie the knot, while mom Linda (Schabron), dad James (Irvine), and the rest of the family watch online. The parents are separated, largely due to Linda’s drinking problem, a factor in an accident that left their son paralyzed.
All this soap-opera shenanigans is of no real importance, however, once the wedding ceremony begins, under a local officiant (Zavet). It soon becomes clear something is off. Linda and Maddy are chatting on the side, and after looking at clues such as the venue’s iconography, discover it’s apparently part of a cult called the Church of Infinity, which has some very dodgy beliefs. Let’s just say, there’s a reason each member of the online audience was sent a knife as a wedding gift. There’s also a miniature of alcohol, which is drunk at the beginning to toast the happy couple. I would imagine most right-thinking individuals will be yelling at their screens – phone, laptop or television – as things unfold in cyberspace.
For the basic concept here is not particularly plausible. Or perhaps it’s that the film makes minimal effort to convince the audience of its credibility. First, you have to accept that Jessica is capable of going from zero to devoted cult adherent without anyone particularly noticing. Maddy has vague concerns about Adrik being a bit controlling, and that’s it. Meanwhile, I get that Linda has her own issues: however, she’s a pretty high-functioning recovering alcoholic, and is clearly devoted to her kids. Yet she’s weirdly at ease with her daughter wedding a guy who is totally unknown to her, on the other side of the world. Counter data-point: my own mother refused to allow Chris and I to get married by an Elvis impersonator in Vegas. And she knew Chris.
The film did a fairly adequate job of holding my attention. Linda has to carry an increasing amount of the dramatic weight, as other characters fall by the wayside, and Schabron is up to the task. Her character’s medical experience becomes significantly more significant than her alcoholism, except for its relevance to Linda avoiding one plot element. Though I was hoping it was going to be rather more extreme that it turned out. The cameras on the church side are infuriatingly poorly-placed and, while there’s one brief moment where I thought it might be going full French extreme (you’ll know what I mean if you see it), the film immediately backs off. Although working within its limitations, it remains exactly that: limited.