On her wedding day, a bride (Natalie Burn) jilts her husband to be (Ser-Darius Blain) at the altar. Deciding she can no longer go through with the wedding, she heads for a family cabin unaware that her fiancé’s groomsmen are on their way to kill her. Using all of her wits and skills, the bride has to fend them off in order to escape with her life.
‘Til Death Do Us Part’ aspires to be ‘Kill Bill’ but it sadly doesn’t come close. All of the central characters have no names – just Bride, Groom etc – and viewers are kept in the dark for the majority of the film, having no real understanding of why a group of men is trying to kill a woman who has just left her groom at the altar. Writers Chad Law and Shane Dax Taylor attempt to deliver a split narrative, with the story jumping between the wedding day and a past holiday between the bride and groom.
The constant jumping between narratives is jarring. This is billed as a blood-soaked action film, but it’s too frequently held up by long scenes of exposition that delay the best bits. The past storyline drips little bits of information but it’s so long-winded, you’ll likely end up not really caring by the time the ‘big reveal’ happens. The modern day storyline has plenty of issues too in terms of pacing and underwhelming action. While I don’t generally expect any action film to be wholly believable, the beating that the bride takes would kill her within minutes but she brushes off every battle as if she simply tripped over.
The acting from the cast is variable, and sometimes you wonder if they’re even in the same film. Natalie Burn, to her credit, is one of the best parts of the film. She’s a strong lead that does the best she can do with the underwritten material she’s been given. Similarly Cam Gigandet acquits himself well, playing a pantomime villain that quite possibly is in a totally different film but he’s a lot of fun to watch. As for the rest of the cast, it’s very hit-and-miss. What on earth Jason Patric’s doing in this I’ve no idea and judging from his performance, neither does he.
‘Til Death Do Us Part’ is sadly just not a very good movie. The potential was there and it clearly took influence from Quentin Tarantino and the more recent cult hit ‘Ready or Not’, but it offers nothing new. With a fractured story that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, some pantomime acting and run-time that’s at least 30 minutes too long, ‘Til Death Do Us Part’ isn’t the adrenaline-filled thrill-ride it thinks it is. Instead, it’s a long and unrewarding slog to get to the end credits.
Cast: Natalie Burn, Cam Gigandet, Jason Patric, Orlando Jones, Ser’Darius Blain, Pancho Moler Director: Timothy Woodward Jr. Writers: Chad Law & Shane Dax Taylor Certificate: 15 Duration: 111 mins Released by: Plaion Pictures Release date: 15th April 2024
