A Costa Rican Wedding

It’s week 3 of Hallmark’s Summer Nights series in August. And my emotions were all over the place watching A Costa Rican Wedding.  It was filmed on location in Costa Rica, so the scenery was gorgeous. It’s about a maid of honor who, well, she’s not very coordinated and she doesn’t make the smartest choices, nor does she have the support of the bride and groom’s parents. And everything that can go wrong, does! Including, getting lost in the jungle with all that you’d expect to find in there. Yeah, there’s a lot to unpack with this one so let’s dive right in and get to it!

Hi, I’m Stephanie and this is the Magical Movie Club - a place to come and chat about new, and sometimes classic, Hallmark movies. This week we watched A Costa Rican Wedding, starring Rhiannon Fish and Christopher Russell. 

The movie opens with Emily. She’s sitting on a beautiful beach when the love of her life, Shane, walks up to her. Now I wasn’t 100% sure, but based on how the conversation went I started wondering if she was daydreaming. Her face sure lit up when she saw him! And then he proceeds to tell her he was a fool and made a mistake. And now that he’s thought things over he wants to marry her. But this is where it gets weird. Before she answers she asks him a question of her own, “What about the other woman?” And his answer gives it away that this can’t possibly be real. “She could be my barista. Or the lady at the bookshop. Or my cousin.”

And then she’s back to reality. It looks like she’s a school nurse and her coworker is trying to get her attention. In their conversation we learn that she’s getting ready to leave for Costa Rica for a friend’s wedding, but she’s also having a hard time getting over her break-up with Shane and can’t stop looking at the pictures he’s posting on social media. It’s really an obsession with her!

Before she leaves, though, we find out one more important piece of information. And that is she’s carrying the bride’s and groom’s wedding bands in her backpack/purse. Apparently these belonged to the bride’s great grandmother, so they’re family heirlooms. And what does she do? She accidentally drops them in a cup of Jell-o. And then she almost leaves without them.

So this opening sequence tells us quite a lot about this character. Emily is both clumsy and absent-minded.

Next she arrives in gorgeous Costa Rica and she’s looking for the groom’s cousin to pick her up at the airport. While she waits, and stares at more pictures of Shane online, Ryan shows up and she’s quite taken by surprise. In her state of shock she knocks over the chair. Apparently Ryan and Jamal, the groom, are now related by marriage so they’re not only best friends, they’re also family.

As they head out it’s obvious that Emily does NOT like Ryan. And later on, the bride, Phoebe, talks about how Emily and Ryan have had issues with one another for years. She just never knew why. But on the drive out to the rental house where they’re staying Ryan tells Emily he’s started his own tour company.

So, this next scene is pretty telling, too. As they pull up to a house, Emily looks at it and then looks at her phone and she says this doesn’t look anything like the place she found. Well, Ryan proceeds to tell her they changed the location. He used the excuse that the numbers changed now that Emily’s boyfriend, Shane, wasn’t coming. But it’s obvious they didn’t like her pick so they used that as an excuse to find a different place. And no one thought to tell Emily? 

Well, after she puts her stuff down she meets her best friend down at the beach. This is where we meet Phoebe and Jamal, the bride and groom. And the first thing out of his mouth is, “You’ve got the rings, right?” And she sounds shocked by the question, “Just because I lost the house keys (6 times) and the garage fob…”  Is anyone else starting to wonder what this bride and groom were thinking entrusting her with these rings?

My opinion of Phoebe was sealed later that evening when she said goodnight to Emily and called her “the best maid of honor ever.” Um, not exactly… Not to mention, we get another glimpse at Emily’s state of mind when she, yet again, pulls out her phone to look at pictures of her ex with his new girlfriend. In my opinion, she’s acting very much like a high school,  teenage girl.

The next morning we learn that she has planned a day for the girls to ride scooters over to an historic park and then have lunch at a place called the Seaside Grill. Now, Ryan likes her plans for the day, except for their mode of transportation. Remember I said she’s a bit scatterbrained and a little empty headed? Yeah, she didn’t really take any time to find out about these scooters she rented. Nor did she consider whether the other girls would even enjoy such a thing. 

Now this is just my opinion, but she strikes me as being very much of the mindset that if she thinks something is a good idea, then everyone should think so, too. I mean just look at how she responds to Ryan who is only offering his opinion about riding scooters in a mountainous area.

Pretty soon the parents all arrive. And besides the bride’s mother presenting her daughter with this headpiece, remember she’s getting married on the beach in Costa Rica, one of the first things out of her mouth is, “You trusted Emily with our family estate jewels?” Right in front of Emily!

Now don’t get me wrong, the question was more than justified. But it was so inappropriate to say it out loud like that. 

But then, sadly, we find out that Emily’s scatter-brained judgment was on fire again when she put pineapple in the smoothies she was making, knowing full-well that her best friend, the bride, is allergic to pineapple. 

Fortunately, everyone rushes to her aid and Emily happens to be carrying some Benadryl in her first aid kit, so Phoebe is going to be fine. In reality, I have no idea if taking Benadryl actually helps with a food allergy like this. Maybe?

So next Emily breaks the news to everyone about the scooters she’s rented. Clearly, no one other than the bride herself is happy about this. Just remember, she’s the one who said she thought Emily was the best bridesmaid ever! But Emily will not be swayed. Ladies this is going to be a blast. You can trust me. Famous last words.

Well, one of the other bridesmaids had had enough and she called the guys to come pick them up. Poor Emily. She just doesn’t get anything right. And a big part of the problem is she won’t even listen to reason.

They do finally arrive safely at Manuel Antonio historical park. And the bride’s father asks Ryan, “So who is Manuel Antonio?” Ryan actually has no idea. Wait, isn’t he supposed to be a tour guide? I’m thinking maybe he could take lessons from Angela in Christmas in Rome! 

Although, Ryan does mention he knows about a secret beach that would be less crowded, so they’d have more privacy. Everyone loves the idea so they blow off Emily’s plan once again. But does anyone ask why no one ever goes to this beach? 

Well, this next scene at the secret beach is where we find out why, and it sets up the main theme for the rest of the movie. While everyone else is setting their things down under a tree closer to the water, Emily walks back to hang her backpack up on a tree further away from everyone else. We also get a chance to see who is living in those trees! Mmm hmm - monkeys! 

Now look at everyone’s faces while they watch one of the monkeys take things out of Emily’s bag. They’re not concerned even one bit. It’s like, “Who cares that her wallet and her phone are in there. She doesn’t need those when she’s visiting a foreign country.”  And they don’t do anything to stop the monkey. They just laugh and smile at the entertainment. 

I’m sorry, but these people are like children. I would get it if, let’s say the monkey had taken a banana, and started peeling it and eating it. Now that would be entertaining! But this is her purse, people. Her passport could be in there! 

And actually, besides her phone, all Emily is worried about right now is her bathing suit bottoms. Although I’m still trying to figure out where exactly she was going to be able to change into those out here.

And I also have a question for Ryan - why would he take them all to a beach surrounded by monkeys without giving them all a fair warning about them and not to leave anything unattended near the trees where the monkeys like to take things. Exactly what kind of a tour guide did he think he was going to be? I mean let’s go back to Christmas in Rome again for just a quick moment. How would a real client have reacted to losing her entire purse to a monkey without being given any notice about them whatsoever? Hmmm?? I’m just saying, whoever wrote this didn’t seem to think any of this through, either.

Well, after the monkeys were gone, Phoebe commented, “Just be thankful there was nothing more valuable in your backpack.”  But of course there was! The rings!

And yes, the rest of the whole movie is about Emily and Ryan’s journey. Ryan insisted on going with her to find the backpack in the jungle.

Which is a good thing because she wanted to go pet the moving stick.  Snake!

For the next hour they have some adventures together, like riding in a boat and avoiding the crocodiles.

They meet up with a local expert to tell him what happened so he can be on the lookout for the backpack, too.

But wait, there’s more! Emily is looking at a tracker on Ryan’s phone and guess what she does with it? She puts it down right on the edge of the boat and it slips right into the water! And no, she doesn’t tell Ryan about it and he doesn’t notice it’s even missing until much later.  So by this time I’m thinking he isn’t any smarter than Phoebe for trusting Emily.

On their journey they do recover a couple of her things, like the first aid kit that she had attached to the backpack, and her bathing suit bottoms for which she just had to stop and climb the tree to recover. Never mind that that would just take up precious time away from looking for the rings.

Of course we also find out he’s afraid of heights.

Meanwhile, back at the rental, the bride’s parents are well, less than kind when speaking about Emily. Nice way to be calming and reassuring to the bride-to-be isn’t it? There’s no nice way to put it, her mother was horrible!

And actually, this next scene was one of the better ones. I thought the movie was just starting to get a little better after this. Emily finally fought back about how she had been treated. I’m not saying I completely defend her, because she was an awful maid of honor, but she had also been treated so disrespectfully up to this point it’s no wonder she blew up here.

But then my opinion of her went right back down again when she tried telling Ryan it wasn’t her fault that she lost his phone in the river. Really?!

But later she and Ryan finally had a reasonable conversation that night when they slept in a hammock which he just happened to be carrying in his backpack.

And by now the bride’s and groom’s dads are starting to plan a rescue mission. That’s when one of the bridesmaids, I believe she is the groom's sister, shows them a signal on her phone that points to where Ryan’s truck is located up highway 142. She said it’s a blue tooth signal to her earpods that she left in the truck. Those must be some amazing earpods to transmit a blue tooth signal that far! Just saying. 

Anyway, after a few more adventures like falling down a mudslide and crossing a wobbly bridge, they finally found their way to a swimming hole and rinsed off, showing a little more skin than I’m used to from Hallmark.

It’s also here where we finally find out why there’s been a rift between these two all these years. I’m not going to give it away just yet, but I, personally, thought it was a childish misunderstanding and a bit of a letdown after all the buildup.

Fast-forwarding a bit to get to the end, they do finally make it back safely, but the wedding is now canceled because the bride messed up this time. Why not, they have no rings anyway, right? 

Well, believe it or not, the ending wasn’t half bad. It had some redeeming qualities. Emily finally did something smart, including how she handled a situation involving the bride’s mother. And they all got their happy ending.

So, let’s talk about the characters. Shall we start with Ryan? He owns a tour company in Costa Rica and he was kind of useless in the jungle without the map and his phone - I know it was really Emily who lost his phone, okay and the map, too, but knowing what he knows about her, why did he trust these things with her?  She’s so scatter-brained and flustered all the time he had to know she was going to lose them. Oh, and he’s afraid of heights? Seriously, who would you hire this guy? He’s really not a stand-up example of a leading man in my opinion.

And what about Phoebe, the bride? We find out that she and Emily have been friends since they were 12 when she brings up some more Emily mishaps from their childhood. Aside from the house keys and the garage fob, there’s also the time in the sixth grade when she lost the class pet. Or even when she mistook the sugar for salt. My point is Phoebe had plenty of time to figure out that giving Emily those rings was a bad idea.

And how about the bride’s mother? She’s not just controlling. I’ve come to expect that from plenty of bride’s mothers. She was just, I don’t know, I think she was seriously immature in her own right.  It was one thing for her to be concerned about Emily being the maid of honor for her daughter’s wedding, especially being in charge of the precious rings. She had every right to be concerned. But to say the things she said out loud, both to her daughter a few days before the wedding and in front of Emily, too? Oh my gosh! Show some tact. It’s time to hold your tongue now and not stress out your daughter any more than she already is. But there was no maturity there, either. See, these are the kinds of emotions this movie brought out in me. 

And of course I’ve saved the best for last. Let’s talk about Emily. Boy is there a lot to unpack with this one. In many ways I think she is an absolute sweetheart. Other than when she’s around Ryan, there’s not a mean or spiteful bone in her body. And she is fiercely loyal to the end. All wonderful qualities. But, she is not only clumsy. She’s scatterbrained and often empty-headed. And as a result, she makes some bad choices. 

And I’m not just talking about the wedding. As it turns out the whole reason she was acting horribly toward Ryan is because he was a little stand-offish when she had a boyfriend and he didn’t like the way he treated her. All I heard here was, he used to like her when she had a boyfriend and she didn’t know it. And she interpreted that as he must not like her so she doesn’t like him and she’s going to be mean to him. Seriously? Are we still in high school? This movie was so frustrating at times because I had a hard time believing that 30- and 40-year-olds behaved like this. They were so juvenile.

And then it hit me. Just as I was thinking that, I remembered another movie earlier this year that had very much the same juvenile feel to it - A Whitewater Romance. And guess what? I looked it up and, sure enough, they were both written by the same person, Juliana Wimbles. Clearly, this is her style. I guess it’s her thing.

I’m really sorry to say it, but it’s not for me. As much as I would like to, I can’t give this movie anything higher than let’s say a 2. Other than the spectacular Costa Rican scenery, and maybe the monkeys, which I can’t deny were pretty cute, I can’t think of much of anything else this movie has going for it.

Well I think that wraps up my review of A Costa Rican Wedding. Next up we’ll be chatting about The Magic of Lemon Drops starring Lyndsy Fonseca and Ian Harding. The description of that one intrigues me. I love a good time-travel or alternate reality movie, and she’s already made a couple like that including Next Stop, Christmas and Where Are You, Christmas? And I only know of one movie with Ian Harding, and that was Ghosts of Christmas Always. So I’m thinking next week we could be in for a really good one!

Until then, and as always, thank you so much for being here and being a part of the Magical Movie Club. We'll be back next week to chat more about our favorite magical movies!

Hallmark Channel's Original Preview:  A Costa Rican Wedding - Preview

Hallmark Channel Movie Site: A Costa Rican Wedding