It's New Year's Eve and we have an assembly of couples all in varying stages of happiness, meaning unhappiness, in their relationships. But each relationship status is likely to change when Helena shows up. You know, the character that we seem to know about before we've even met her, and the one that they all met at the wedding. Whose wedding? I don't know, just one of the unhappy nameless couples.
These characters weren't all that interesting and the fact that they were having difficulty connecting with their better half was both tiresome and obvious. Of course they're having relationship difficulties – they are all alcoholics. There were more bottles of wine in that cottage than the square of the number of people there. Even the pregnant one drank, but I think we're supposed to forgive her because marriage is hard.
But we're not watching to focus on the peripheral characters or the wine, we're watching for Helena. What's so special about Helena? She's sexy. She's blonde and a model. Other than that I don't know what's so special about her, she hardly speaks. Gillian Jacobs is a better actress than one would assume based on her sitcom résumé, but here they gave her some weird accent so maybe it is best she says nothing.
Once Lee Tergesen and the beautiful Melanie Lynskey get me connected to them, and I almost start caring about what will happen with Helena in the picture, the credits roll. Well they gave each other a look first. The kind of look where all the answers are in the eyes. It's better to end a movie that way if the questions they answer are interesting enough in the first place. Helena who? From which wedding? It's all quite forgettable since it's too hard to care enough to come up with your own answers.
