Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Love Wedding Repeat’ is a romantic comedy with a twist. It focuses on the efforts of a man to keep his sister’s wedding from turning into a sordid affair. The solution presents itself quickly, but executing it becomes an obstacle that he can’t overcome, no matter how many chances he receives. His quest delivers hilarious situations, topping it off with the ending. If you haven’t yet seen the film, head over to Netflix. Here, in great detail, we discuss what the ending means for the characters. SPOILERS AHEAD
Plot Summary
Jack’s little sister, Hayley, is getting married. By far, everything has gone great. Now, he has to walk her down the aisle, and once the ceremony is done, he can relax and enjoy it. However, there are impediments to his peaceful days. First of all, he finds out that he is sharing the table with his ex, Amanda. Some time ago, they’d had a heated affair, which ended with even more heat. Now, they don’t like each other very much.
Much to his chagrin, Jack’s best friend, Bryan, who is also Hayley’s maid of honor, finds himself seated next to Rebecca, a girl who he thinks is very clingy. Adding to Jack’s anxiety, Hayley tells him that she also invited Dina, her friend whom Jack had met three years ago, and liked a lot. This is the only chance for him to express his feelings for her.
The last challenge, and the worst of them all, surfaces in the form of Marc. He is in love with Hayley and has somehow deluded himself that she is in love with him too, but wants him to make a big gesture of his love. He will do this by stopping the wedding.
The Ending, Explained
While every wedding comes with its own set of challenges, the one in the film is more twisted than most. All of the things that could go wrong did, in the first version, at least. Setting apart the problems that Jack has to tackle, Hayley ends up with a disgruntled lover; an injured, if not dead, husband who hates her now; a brother with a broken nose; a maid of honor who was sedated and hence lost the opportunity of a lifetime while ruining the speech as well as the cake. Luckily, this is not how the story ends.
In the beginning, the Oracle talks about all the permutations of every event and the hold that chance has over our lives. Just in case you were wondering about how many ways you can arrange eight people in a circle, the number goes above five thousand! We get a glimpse of a handful of these possibilities in a montage before the Oracle rests it on the final one- the one where things don’t end so bad for everyone.
This time around, Jack drinks the spiked champagne, and it does create some hindrance in his task. He comes off as impolite, to put it politely, to Dina. He struggles to keep up with Marc, who is becoming more anxious to break the news of Hayley’s betrayal to Roberto. By the end of it, however, he not only succeeds in convincing Marc to give up on his delusion but also finds the courage to express his feelings to Dina. Bryan, too, finds love in Rebecca and gets the shot that he had been waiting for.
As the credits roll, we witness another, and perhaps, the funniest version of the wedding. This makes us question: which of the versions is the real one? How does ‘Love Wedding Repeat’ really end? Let’s find out.
The Time Loop: Which Version is the Real One?
The answer to this depends on your interpretation. The simplest one is to take the usual route. The story ends the way the film ends. Everyone gets a happy ending; all is well. As far as the version during the credits goes, you can consider it as the one that happens in one of the times that are shown in the montage. Because there is no proper conclusion to that, it can’t be the end.
Another perspective towards the story comes from the Oracle’s talk about chance. Comparing ‘Love Wedding Repeat’ with other similar films, the ones with multiple versions of the same event, it comes to light that there is no loop. In ‘Groundhog Day’, Bill Murray’s character is stuck in a day and only comes out of this loop when there is a shift in his nature.
In ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ or ‘Live. Die. Repeat’ (which clearly seems to be the inspiration for the title), Tom Cruise’s character is stuck in a loop because of the chemicals in his body, and this loop is broken when the aliens are defeated. In both films, the protagonists are aware of the time loop they are in. They learn from their past versions to be better in the next. A similar theme persists in other films as well. In this one, however, Jack is not aware of other possibilities. He is not stuck in a loop; hence, he can’t foresee the trouble in the next version. He can’t learn from his mistakes.
The reason behind this is that all of these versions are simply the possibilities. Instead of considering all of these events happening in the same world, consider them to be taking place in alternate universes. All of them have happened as equally as none of them has happened. Another detail that supports this theory is that we witness the story from the point of view of the Oracle. We never see her in the film; she is not a part of the wedding. She is a spectator, and so, she is the only one who can tell one version from the other. Jack doesn’t have this luxury.
Following this, if we boil it down to the one version that took place in the original universe (though that’s a very redundant thing to imagine) is the one that happens in the beginning. The Oracle starts the story with how the events actually happen. Because it’s the worst one, she gives us a glimpse into how it could have ended differently, which means the rest is all consolation.
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