This new feel-good chick-lit movie seems to be part of the continued journey of the darlings of  indie-movies Duplass Brothers to making more mainstream comedies.  The movie directed by the Oscar nominated Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound) from the brothers script, still has the usual  cast of odd-ball slightly dysfunctional characters that we have come to expect from them, but the easy-to-predict story is actually quite funny in parts.

Table 19 is the one placed in the far corner of the banqueting room for a wedding at which Eloise (Anna Kendrick) should have been Maid of Honor until she was unceremoniously by Teddy the Best Man (Wyatt Russell) two months before.  As she is also the oldest friend of the Bride, who just happens to be Teddy’s sister, Eloise is still invited to the nuptials but is now consigned to the table full of an odd collection  of people that the bridal couple had asked out of politeness assuming that they would all not accept. 

There is the Bride’s aged ex-Nanny Jo (a deliciously funny June Squib); Walter a Brit (Stephen Merchant) who is on parole from prison and is a nephew of the Bride’s father; The Klebs (Lisa Kudrow & Craig Robinson) an unhappily married couple who constantly squabble ; and Renzo (Tony Revolori) a very nervous pubescent Indian young man whose mother phones him every minute to help him in his quest to lose his virginity .

This disparate group of strangers start to bond when they discover the reason why that Eloise has been banished to their table in the corner next to the bathrooms,  and encourage her to exact some revenge on Teddy and his new girlfriend.  That is until Nanny Jo learns something about his past and decides that he isn’t a bad egg after all, and that Eloise should try and grab him back.

There are plenty of diversions in the plot as Eloise thinks she has met (another) man of her dreams who turns out to the groom-to-be at the wedding next door; Nanny Jo is the one who brings the drugs to the party;  Renzo throws himself at two of the single women at the party in such a loutish manner that shows he has no boundaries; and Walter who had been trying to masquerade as successful business is much happier when he gets mistaken for a waiter; and naturally in this movie destined to tie up all the loose ends, The Klebs find happiness again.

Table 19 is not a laugh-out-loud comedy and there are times when the chemistry of the people seated around Table 19 does simply just not gel. However having said it has more than a few moments that are downright funny, particularly thanks to the performance of young Revolori, who had proved in his screen debut as the bus boy in the movie Hotel Budapest,  that he knows how to steal all his scenes.