Wake (2009)

Feature Film | Comic Thriller | USA | English | 1h37m
Dir: Ellie Kanner | Scr: Lennox Wiseley | Ph: Gavin Kelly | Prod: Hal Schwartz, Bill Shraga, Lennox Wiseley | Mus: Brad Segal | Ed: Naveen Singh | PD: Travis Zariwny | AD: Melanie Rein | Snd: Teddy Salas | Cast: Bijou Phillips, Ian Somerhalder, Jane Seymour, Danny Masterson, Marguerite Moreau, Sprague Grayden, David Zayas, Kevin Alejandro, Ian Gomez, Meagen Fay, James Eckhouse

In this quite ridiculous but strangely charming rom-com, which gently morphs from rather silly farce to even sillier thriller and back again, a young set designer, who was denied a funeral for her sister by her over-protective parents as a child, and who as a result has taken to attending strangers’ memorials as an adult in order to find some sort of catharsis, falls for the fiancé of a recently deceased young woman, whom she met under false pretences at her funeral, and begins dating him, despite the fact that he is under suspicion of causing her death. Likable leads, fairly well-drawn characters, and some unpredictable plotting just about make up for the film’s inaner moments.