I Do, I Do, I Do (2015)
(On Cable TV, July 2021) How bizarre — I Do, I Do, I Do is the third time-loop romantic comedy I’ve seen in less than six months (after the really good high-end Palm Springs and the average low-budget Love on Repeat) and at this point, I’m beyond being annoyed at the riffs on the same theme — I’m now actively seeking them out. I do, I do, I do is most similar to Love on Repeat in that it must also be managed within a low-budget and the Hallmark Channel’s ideal of romantic comedies — but it’s better than average in how it takes advantage of its premise within its narrow subgenre. After a rather lengthy setup in which our heroine, her cuter sister, her overeager fiancé and his fiancé’s brother are introduced and shipped off to an isolated resort for a prestige wedding, the time loop starts and lets the heroine voice her doubts about the marriage as she keeps getting married over and over again. (Amusingly enough, the film does its best to avoid the question of the wedding night.) Fortunately, her fiancé’s brother is there to present a better match, teach her to swim and dance over several days, and “talk a thousand hours” to prove that he’s a better choice. There’s an amusing collision between daytime romantic comedy tropes and time-loop conventions here, as long as you’re able to keep a healthy detachment from questions of consent and ethics when one romantic partner knows a lot more about the other than the other. This is supposed to be a romantic fantasy, after all, and if you want to see this as the saccharine twin of Palm Springs despite having come out five years earlier, then I certainly won’t stop you. Still, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the film’s ability to marry the idea of a time-loop (a great low-budget kind of fantasy!) with themes of wedding jitters and the wish to “do it over.” (Don’t bother looking for a science-fictional explanation for the time loop — it’s a protagonist-centred moral/romantic kind of fantasy.) I Do, I Do, I Do goes a bit fast and loose on credibility in the third act, but what’s learning Italian from audiobooks and being fuzzy on marrying the brother right after rejecting the fiancée when there’s a happy ending to wrap up? It’s not a great movie, but director Ron Oliver executes Nancey Silvers’ above-average script with professionalism and the result is more interesting than most other movies of its sub-genre, and it makes for an interesting addition to the time-loop romance movie collection.