Table 19 Wastes A Talented Cast On An Underwhelming Script

Eloise (Anna Kendrick) didn't want to be here. Not only is this the wedding that she helped put together before being abruptly dismissed from such duties, but this wedding she's attending also puts her into direct contact with her ex-boyfriend, Teddy (Wyatt Russell), who just so happens to be the Best Man of this wedding (that's why she got let go from helping to plan the wedding). It's an experience she's not exactly elatedly anticipating but she's here and she's gonna make the best of it. At least she has plenty of people to talk to at the table, table 19 (hey, that's the title!) she's been situated at, with her table-mates being an assorted group of quirky individuals played by Lisa Kudrow, June Squibb, Craig Robinson, Stephen Merchant and Tony Revelori.

The awkwardness she's gotta endure when putting up with these five people is making an already difficult day all the more stressful, though there's plenty that will still go awry in the day ahead for herself and her fellow table 19 residents. Most of those adventures Eloise and her newfound friends get into are, unfortunately, on the predictable side of things, particularly a revelation for why Eloise feels so conflicted about breaking up with Teddy that feels like one of the most tired plot avenues Table 19 could have gone down.  The struggles faced by Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow as a struggling married couple are similarly tired in both concept and execution.

It's a pity that so much of Table 19 feels so routine since it's both got a great cast and its basic premise showed a lot of promise. The primary problem in Jefferey Blitz's screenplay (Blitz also directs this one), as far as I'm concerned, is it falls flat on either making the movie an interesting character study or an enjoyable comedy. Now, a motion picture totally can be both of those elements but it would have been totally cool if Table 19 had just fit into one of those types of storytelling. Unfortunately, it comes up short on both counts. The character-centric parts of its story are lacking since the characters themselves are pretty thinly sketched. 

Eloise and Teddy's relationship, the crux of the entire movie, is especially poorly executed since neither of the individuals in this relationship ever feel like fully-formed human beings. Kendrick lends some enjoyable casual awkwardness to her character but there's really not much there in terms of a substantive personality for Eloise to lean on while Teddy is incredibly ill-defined as a person. Subsequently, trying to get the audience to care about their fractured relationship just rings hollow. Various subplots for the people Eloise is stuck with at this wedding party just sort of fade in and out of Table 19 and also fail to make an impact.

There is more success had in terms of being a comedy, with Kendrick's performance garnering some amusing line readings and Stephen Merchant's endlessly awkward character providing some of the only outright hilarious bits of the entire motion picture, particularly in a scene where he nabs a wedding cake to the tune of a Spanish version of Joan Jett's Bad Reputation. A greater quantity of clever comedic moments like that and the impact the more underdeveloped characters have on Table 19 could have been minimized. As it stands, the film just feels underwhelming as a whole even if the cast at least keep Table 19 painless but not really all that memorable.