Enjoying its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, The Wedding Guest is an edge-of-your-seat thriller full of exciting twist and turns that takes its audience on a road trip across India.
Starring Oscar nominee Dev Patel, The Wedding Guest hits the ground running starting with the very first frame. We’re introduced to Patel’s mysterious character as he boards a Pakistan-bound flight from England. Once he’s landed he immediately rents a car, purchases a handful of weapons, and drives to a small town where we discover a young woman is celebrating the eve of her wedding.
That evening he tip toes through the house and kidnaps the soon-to-be bride right out of her bed. After slapping her mouth with duck tape, tying up her wrists and covering her head in a bag, he runs her out of the house and quickly tosses her into the trunk of his car.
The film’s heart-pumping beginning leaves the audience asking questions regarding who they should trust, but like any meticulously crafted kidnapping caper we quickly learn that things are not as they seem. The Wedding Guest features all the elements of an unforgettable heist: exotic locations, backroom black markets, fake ids, hidden diamonds, cold blooded murder, deceptive decisions and an unexpected romance.
After safely crossing the border into India we learn that the beautiful bride is actually in on an unfathomable scheme. Her husband-to-be is a member of a famous jewel family and she’s been working with a secret lover all along to steal millions of dollars worth of diamonds. She used the wedding as a perfect front to an unassuming robbery, hoping her disappearance would be treated no more than a tragic abduction in the local news.
When the kidnapped brides tale makes it onto the BBC, and the criminal couple have a falling out, it’s her kidnapper who must decide if he’s going to return her to Pakistan and risk being caught, or zig-zag across India in search of a safe hiding place.
