The Wedding Party (2016) Review: A Lagos Wedding in Meltdown

Is The Wedding Party worth watching?

Yes. The Wedding Party is an energetic, glossy crowd-pleaser that captures the spectacle, excess and chaos of a big Nigerian wedding with real affection. Kemi Adetiba juggles a large cast with confidence, and the film’s sense of place, from the outfits to the family politics, is its greatest asset. The reservation is that the comedy is broad and the plotting overstuffed, so not every storyline gets the attention it deserves.

What is The Wedding Party about?

The Wedding Party unfolds around one lavish Lagos wedding. Dunni (Adesua Etomi) and Dozie (Banky W) are young, in love and about to be married, but their families come from different backgrounds and have very different ideas about how the celebration should go.

As the guests pour in, everything that can go wrong begins to. Parents clash over status and tradition, an ex turns up with an agenda, the planners scramble to keep things on track, and simmering family secrets threaten to spill out in front of hundreds of guests. Richard Mofe-Damijo, Sola Sobowale and Ireti Doyle lead the supporting cast, and Kemi Adetiba directs. The Nigerian film is mostly in English, with some Yoruba and Igbo, and runs 110 minutes.

Adetiba stages a wedding like a battlefield

The film’s great strength is its scale and energy. Adetiba, who came to the film from music videos and television, gives it a polished, bright visual style that was unusually glossy for Nollywood at the time. The wedding hall, crowded with guests in coordinated fabrics, dancing and eating and gossiping, feels authentically overwhelming, and the camera weaves through the chaos with confidence.

The comedy draws on recognisable wedding dynamics: rival mothers, fussing aunties, overstretched planners, drunk groomsmen and endless speeches. Much of the humour comes from the tension between Yoruba and Igbo families and their assumptions about each other, handled with a teasing affection that never becomes cruel. For Nigerian audiences, the recognition factor is huge; for international audiences, it is a vivid window into contemporary Lagos culture.

A cast that knows how to play to the crowd

Adesua Etomi is warm and funny as Dunni, a bride trying to hold her nerve while her big day comes apart, and Banky W brings easy charm to Dozie. Their chemistry anchors the film. The older cast members are the real scene-stealers, though, playing parents whose pride and pettiness drive much of the comedy. Richard Mofe-Damijo and Sola Sobowale, two of Nollywood’s best-known names, are among them.

The ensemble approach means that some of the most interesting threads, particularly those involving the parents’ marriages, emerge as surprisingly affecting beneath the farce.

Where the party gets crowded

The Wedding Party’s appetite for incident is also its weakness. There are so many subplots, some involving characters we barely know, that the film sometimes feels like a sketch show strung together by a wedding. The humour relies on slapstick and exaggerated reactions, which can be exhausting, and some story threads are resolved abruptly or not at all. Viewers wanting sharp romantic comedy writing may find it more exuberant than witty.

Who should watch The Wedding Party?

This is ideal for fans of big, noisy ensemble comedy, anyone who enjoys wedding films, and viewers curious about contemporary Nigerian popular cinema. It is best watched with friends or family, especially those who have survived a large wedding themselves. There is some innuendo, mild language and drinking, but nothing graphic, and it runs just under two hours. A sequel, The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai, followed in 2017.

If it wins you over, try these next:

• Phone Swap, Kunle Afolayan’s Nigerian romance comedy about mismatched strangers, with a similar blend of farce and heart.
• Lionheart, Genevieve Nnaji’s family comedy-drama, which is gentler but shares an affectionate eye for Nigerian family dynamics.

The verdict

The Wedding Party is a glossy, joyful and chaotic comedy that captures the spectacle of a big Nigerian wedding with humour and affection. Its plotting is overstuffed and its jokes broad, but its energy, cast and sense of culture make it an easy recommendation for a lively night in.

Rating: 4/5