Kelly Marie Tran as Angela, Lily Gladstone as Lee, Han Gi-Chan as Min and Bowen Yang as Chris in a scene from "The Wedding Banquet." (Photo by Luka Cyprian/courtesy Bleecker Street)
They breeze their way into our lives, determined to put an extra spring in our step. When they work, they lift our spirits and possess the ability to turn the most hardened cynic into a true believer in the transformative power of L-O-V-E. When they don't, they're capable of making you swear off dating for a good long while.
Romantic comedies are about as old as cinema itself. They have been the cherries on top of date nights for generations, at the movies or on intimate nights at home. When the intellectual property onslaught filled big screens with four-quadrant forays into superhero antics, boy wizard quests and reboots of stories set in a galaxy far, far away, they found new life as a popular Netflix-and-chill option.
Bowen Yang as Chris and Han Gi-Chan as Min in a scene from "The Wedding Banquet." (Photo by Luka Cyprian/courtesy Bleecker Street)
But when “Anyone but You,” a buoyant Glen Powell/Sydney Sweeney pairing predominantly set in Australia, became a word-of-mouth sensation in theaters in late 2023/early 2024, it became apparent there's still life in the shopworn but enduring genre beyond streaming.
Two new films released in theaters this month put an LGBTQ+ spin on these tales of coupledom, with an Asian, East-meets-West twist. One reenvisions an international hit from the 1990s for a new generation. The other brings an acclaimed stage play to the screen with a famous face from theater and film in tow. Both productions are considerably more serious than they initially let on. Do these tonal shifts work? Let's find out.
Lily Gladstone as Lee and Kelly Marie Tran as Angela in a scene from "The Wedding Banquet." (Photo by Luka Cyprian/courtesy Bleecker Street)
“The Wedding Banquet”: Guys, wha' happened? Seeing this overwrought retooling of Ang Lee's soul-tingling 1993 dramedy is not unlike witnessing a fussy, high-maintenance party planner encouraging guests to have a good time, thus ensuring few actually will because they've suddenly become self-conscious.
But that's the thing about rom-coms. You can't bribe viewers into liking them, and this remake, high on relationship doldrums and low on actual romance, demands that you root for two couples too glum for viewers to become invested in. That these sourpusses are played by four talented, charismatic actors just adds salt to the wound.
Joan Chen as May Chen in a scene from "The Wedding Banquet." (Photo by Luka Cyprian/courtesy Bleecker Street)
The original film followed Wai-Tung (hunky Winston Chao), a Manhattan-based Taiwanese immigrant who gets into a pickle after he agrees to marry his female Chinese tenant in order to satisfy his aging parents, provide the tenant with a green card and hold on to domestic bliss with his (white) live-in boyfriend. The 21st century “Banquet,” which played this past weekend as part of the 42nd Miami Film Festival, swaps New York City for Seattle and adds a lesbian couple into the mix. It also piles on the drama, and the complications.
Chris (Bowen Yang), a birdwatching tour guide who keeps putting off writing his dissertation, lives with his Korean boyfriend Min (Han Gi-Chan), an artist who turns quilts into gallery pieces. The couple rent from Lee (Lily Gladstone), a member of the Duwamish Tribe who bought her cozy abode in order to reclaim her family's land. Lee, who works closely with the LGBTQ+ community, lives with her girlfriend Angela (“The Last Jedi's” Kelly Marie Tran), a straitlaced scientist who has yet to come to terms with pent-up resentment toward her mom May (Joan Chen), a spotlight-seeking PFLAG parent.
Karan Soni as Naveen Gavaskar and Jonathan Groff as Jay Kurundkar in a scene from "A Nice Indian Boy." (Photo courtesy of Blue Harbor Entertainment/Levantine Films)
Meanwhile, Min is dealing with increasing pressure from his very wealthy family to marry. When Lee and Angela face a setback in their attempts to become parents via in vitro fertilization, an unorthodox proposal emerges. Why doesn't Min wed Angela, and they can use his family's cash to help the women bring a child into the world? Loud opposition from Angela and Chris ensues, as do the arguments within each couple. (Did I mention these couples are supposed to be friends?) An unexpected visit from Ja-Young (“Minari's” Youn Yuh-jung), Min's no-nonsense grandmother, brings on the chaos.
It's meant to be charming yet grounded, but “Wedding Banquet” 2.0 amps up the blistering confrontations until they sideline the “com” part of this rom-com. The more farcical bits are doled out in sporadic spurts and often feel forced. At the film's core is a central quartet with snowballing insecurities and unresolved issues. Their dilemmas may ring true, but they snuff out the spark that would have made this material pop. As the plot wheels noisily crank along.
Zarna Garg as Megha Gavaskar, Karan Soni as Naveen Gavaskar, Sunita Mani as Arundhati Gavaskar, Sachin Sahel as Manish and Harish Patel as Archit Gavaskar in a scene from "A Nice Indian Boy." (Photo courtesy of Blue Harbor Entertainment/Levantine Films)
Blame director/co-screenwriter Andrew Ahn, an inspired choice to tell this story, at least on paper. The filmmaker's previous work (the touching mother-son drama “Driveways,” the “Pride and Prejudice” adjacent ensemble comedy “Fire Island”) suggested he was ready and up to the task, but he's unable to find the balance between sweet and sour that Ang Lee juggled so skillfully in the original film. He opts for lived-in, frequently handheld naturalism that doesn't take full advantage of the Pacific Northwest setting and significantly pares down the titular event until it becomes little more than a colorful afterthought.
This new, not improved “Wedding Banquet” careens uneasily from easy laughs to pathos overkill while its stars fight a losing battle to make us care for their flawed characters and their very messy lives. It's not hard, then, for their elders to steal the show. A radiant Chen and a poignant Youn walk away with every scene they're in, and they suggest the livelier, more engaging film this could have been. But the seasoned thespians can only do so much to make this cluttered ode to chosen families less of a buzzkill.
“A Nice Indian Boy”: The theatrical release of “The Wedding Banquet” comes on the heels of the local release of this Amerindie adaptation of Madhuri Shekar's stage play about intergenerational angst between a commitment-phobic Indian-American doctor and his uptight family after he (gasp!) begins dating a white dude. The uneven results go from cute to garish, and play like a queer riff on “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” Meaning it's cheese of a faintly curdled kind.
Karan Soni as Naveen Gavaskar and Jonathan Groff as Jay Kurundkar in a scene from "A Nice Indian Boy." (Photo courtesy of Blue Harbor Entertainment/Levantine Films)
Which is not necessarily an issue, provided there is chemistry between the two leads, and there's the rub.
Naveen Gavaskar (Karan Soni, aka the “Deadpool” movies' Dopinder) is out to his parents, Megha (Zarna Garg) and Archit (Harish Patel), but there's a wall between them regarding any discussion of his love life. A consummate pragmatist who strives to avoid confrontations, Naveen starts to reexamine his own worldview after he meets Jay (Jonathan Groff, in tip-top shape), a freelance photographer who, in the film's most intriguing twist, was adopted by an Indian couple after he became orphaned.
The men's courtship, which shows Jay to be more immersed in Hindi culture, and Bollywood movies, than his new boyfriend, promises to charm the socks off viewers, until it's clear that Groff, who most definitely showed up to work, is acting opposite a void. We're meant to feel the couple's deepening bond, but Soni plays Naveen like a bitter restaurant server who's been on the job too long. The actor leans so hard on his character's sardonic disposition that it's tough to believe Naveen can open his heart to anyone.
More effective are Soni's scenes with Sunita Mani (the animated series “Scavengers Reign”), well cast as Naveen's sister Arundhati. She resents how her parents micromanage every aspect of her life, down to her own loveless marriage, yet leave her brother alone. When these siblings trade barbs, they draw blood. The film's centerpiece brings the dysfunctional Gavaskar clan together to welcome an eager Jay over for dinner. The disastrous results are well orchestrated by director Roshan Sethi, Soni's partner in work and in life.
Harish Patel as Archit Gavaskar, Karan Soni as Naveen Gavaskar and Zarna Garg as Megha Gavaskar in a scene from "A Nice Indian Boy." (Photo courtesy of Blue Harbor Entertainment/Levantine Films)
Working from a screenplay by Eric Randall, Sethi aims to balance the Gavaskars' domestic troubles with Naveen's affairs of the heart, pointing the finger at the protagonist and his emotional incontinence. But since Jay remains the more interesting character, the film's depiction of their relationship remains irreparably lopsided.
As the quietly observant Archit, Patel brings genuine grace to a role that could have easily been little more than a broad cartoon, but there's no way around it: The nice boys in “A Nice Indian Boy” are a bust. For a film that purports to celebrate unions forged from genuine love and devotion, it sure feels like an arranged marriage, in the sense that everything that unfolds feels pre-planned, inevitable, and as such more than little stale.
Except in its climactic closing scene, which features a musical performance that hits its marks with crowd-pleasing flair and injects much-needed energy, though one can see the sequence working better on a live stage, in front of an enthusiastic crowd. It goes a long way toward making this creaky concoction, crippled by its lack of spontaneity, more palatable than it had any right to be.
“The Wedding Banquet” is now playing in theaters across South Florida, including Regal South Beach, Silverspot Cinema in downtown Miami, CMX Brickell City Centre, Cinépolis in Coconut Grove and AMC Aventura 24 and Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale. “A Nice Indian Boy” wrapped up its South Florida theatrical engagements this week after a two-week run. A Video on Demand release date is expected to be announced soon.
