Counter Culture

Reviewed by Pat Harrington

Confetti magazine decides to run a competition. The couple who have the “Most Original Wedding of the Year.” will win a dream house. We watch as various couples with hopeless ideas are brutally rejected (in the style of shows like the ‘X-Factor’). The couples are whittled down to three. We follow the three selected finalists who are presented in a fly-on-the-wall documentary style. The three themes the finalists choose are tennis (!), musicals and naturist.

The cast are convincing, Martin Freeman (The Office), Jessica Stevenson (Spaced), Robert Webb and Olivia Colman (Peep Show and also BBC2’s “Look Around You), Stephen Mangan (Green Wing), Meredith MacNeill (Man Stroke Woman), and Jimmy Carr in his first feature performance, make you forget about how they appear on TV and get you to accept their characters. Vincent Franklin and Jason Watkins as top wedding planners Heron and Hough almost steal the show, with subtly played roles that have a real emotional impact.

Filmed in sequence over the course of 2 months and edited down from over 150 hours of footage, Director Debbie Isitt has constructed a touching, funny film.