TOP END WEDDING: Rom-Com Reflections

It’s a rare thing to see a film like Top End Wedding, a crowd-pleasing rom-com that transgresses social norms within a structure that defies any innovation. Without understanding its Australian connotations, the title of Wayne Blair’s latest already sounds like a beloved Richard Curtis-penned rom-com from the late 1990’s, a chummy affair that would’ve starred the likes of Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock, with all the notable tropes in tow; the quirky meet-cute, the gay best friend, the awkward meeting of the in-laws, a scene-stealing pet, all culminating in one last dash to the airport, where a final public display of affection solidifies a memorable romance for the ages.

Unlike the titular nuptials, the marriage between its well-worn cliches – each of the before-mentioned tropes rearing their ugly heads at regular intervals– and the respectful nature that the congregating characters and cultures are handled with, do not make for quite the successful pairing. But like last year’s smash hit Crazy Rich Asians, Top End Wedding provides a step in the right direction for normalising representation within a slick commercial package that is bound to be a hit with Australian audiences – with a sure eye on the international box office.

Wedding Daze

If My Best Friend’s Wedding instructed us on the futile nature of backup marriage pacts, and Four Weddings and a Funeral spelled out the importance of commitment, then Top End Wedding uses its familiar framework to emphasise the necessity for unity. Whether it be between genders, races, cultures, identities, geographical locations and even the groom’s mismatched socks, reminding audiences that weddings aren’t just about two people becoming one, it’s two families being thrust together and Wayne Blair crafts a charming yarn about the inherent stress of trying to plan the perfect day amongst this chaos.

It’s the families in question that sets this film apart from it’s recent contemporaries, with the bride-to-be’s conquest to find her missing mother before the big day inspiring her own rediscovery of her Aboriginal roots – the type of story that has unfortunately never really been given the mainstream treatment like this in recent history.

The bride is Lauren (Miranda Tapsell, who broke out with Blair’s debut The Sapphires), an assertive corporate lawyer who is on the cusp of making it big with her hauty, silver-haired boss Hampton (Kerry Fox). Whilst she’s at the peak of her career, her partner Ned (Gwilym Lee, de-stringed from the puppeteering of Brian May in Bohemian Rhapsody) is at the opposite end, quitting his legal career when his unwavering morality gets the better of him.

These employment shifts are put on pause when Ned pops the big question, prompting the newly-engaged pair to make the trip from Adelaide to the “Top End” – the Northern Territory for those uninitiated – with a sparse 10 day window from Hampton to plan and pull off the perfect wedding. There’s just one problem: Lauren’s mother is missing, and her crestfallen father (Huw Higginson) is more prone to cry in the closet to Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now” then pursue his absent spouse.

(Trying To) Meet the Parents

It’s equal parts My Big Fat Greek Weddding, A Few Best Men and a pinch of The Hangover, as the love-struck pair start to follow in Daphne’s (Ursula Yovich) footsteps, leading them on a wild goose chase that takes them to the Tiwi Islands – leaving Lauren’s bridal party, including Hampton (a real stretch, logically speaking), to work on the upcoming ceremony. Once it becomes a road trip comedy, it hits all the destinations that one might expect, oddball character interactions wedged between breath-taking aerial shots of Australia’s unmatched outback scenery, large uninhabited spaces that become the worst place for an expected car breakdown to occur.

The quest to find a missing member (and a mid-credit sequence featuring a humorous camera roll of wedding antics) heavily recalls Todd Phillips’ game-changing Hangover franchise, but the comedy here, emanating from Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler’s script, is more broad and culturally specific, geared towards an older demographic, the same people who fuelled the unexpected success of last year’s similarly regional Ladies in Black – delivering a series of smiles than any real belly laughs, but its general pleasantness is still welcome.

It’s the film’s pivot into being about reconciling the past, and recognising the significance of ‘home’ -whether it be a terrestrial or ancestral place – where it becomes more affectionate than one might imagine from it’s pained poster art. This largely stems from its reverential treatment of its prominent Indigenous characters, especially when the whole cast hits the Tiwi Islands, as not only does it become a celebration of two people’s love, but a celebration of two different cultures combining, and Blair handles it all with a gossamer touch of delicacy. Like the best rom-coms, it communicates directly through emotion rather than pure intelligence; to over-analyse its logic leaps and plausibility risks damaging it’s dense viewing pleasure.

Conclusion

The rules and characteristics of the rom-com might the be most recognisable out of any genre – they’re feel-good films riddled with cliches and unbridled sentiment, but that’s part of their inherent charm. There’ll always be an audience demanding to see a newly-wed couple taking the first steps towards their “happily ever after” ending, and Top End Wedding successfully sells us the modern Australian spin on this classic fairy tale scenario.

What are some of your favourite wedding films? Let us know in the comments below!

Top End Wedding is coming to cinemas on May 2nd, 2019.