- Title: Married by Mistake
- IMDb: link
Knowing Chloe Bennet is fantastic, I’ll forgive her quite a bit, even dragging me into this convoluted romcom tale of a woman who finds herself in a triangle between the brother she married (Blair Penner) after a drunken night of shared sorrow and the one she immediately falls for (Anthony Konechny). Despite the fact that she doesn’t really know either brother very well, and the bland looking catalog models make Tom Brady look exotic by comparison, Riley (Bennet) finds herself living a lie with one brother while pinning for the other and attempting to help save the family business from recent poor management by the pair’s father (Eric Keenleyside).
When the film leaves the romance to the side and focuses on Riley working to save the company and putting her good business sense to work, or dipping it’s toes into the far more interesting backstory of her own family dynamics, Married by Mistake is actually not too shabby. With both the script and leading men lacking, director Mike Rohl puts Bennet front and center where she shines.
Without the romcom silliness the film might not have gotten made, but such a movie could have been a far juicier role for Bennet likely also drawing a stronger supporting cast. As it is the romcom aspects don’t offer much outside of Bennet herself, never finding a way to weave the zaniness into memorable moments like While You Were Sleeping or The Secret of My Success, transcending the limitations of the genre.
I would have enjoyed seeing Riley’s relationship with Maria (Gigi Saul Guerrero) and her daughter get a bit more time, seeing how her business plans turned the company around and Riley winning support from various members of both the family and company, as well as an exploration into her relationship with her parents (Linda Ko and Christopher Thornton) with more time spent on the tragedy of her brother. Even with dragging around the albatross of its contrived setup, and often not centering on the most interesting aspects of Riley’s life, Bennet fans may get just enough to make Married by Mistake worth checking out.
Watch the trailer
