Polite Society: Wedding Hiest, action, comedy bites more than it can chew ⭐⭐1/2

Rob Ryan

Polite Society is an offbeat and at times weird mixture of parody, action, comedy and thriller. Certain aspects of it work, while others make you wish the movie would take a breather, in spite of this the movie has enough going for it to keep it at worst mildly entertaining for the remainder of its runtime but I can't help but feel that there is so much potential in this that is left hanging dry.

The film is helmed by writer-director Nida Manzoor, creator of the Channel 4 series We Are Lady Parts (unseen by me) and is set in a similar backdrop of London's Pakistani community. The film follows two sisters, our heroine Ria (Priya Kansara) and her big sister Lena (Ritu Arya) The former is an aspiring stuntwoman who practises her karate moves and videos them to Youtube, and the latter is an art school dropout who is now lacking both inspiration and motivation. One day the family are invited to a party hosted by the wealthy Raheela (Nimra Bucha) and during said party Lena starts being friendly around her son Salim (Akshay Khanna) after finding a load of photos of young women, including her sister neatly placed in his office, Ria decides that Salim is not to be trusted, especially since her sister is now throwing her creative side away, a choice that she can't fathom. With the help of her two schoolmates. (Seralhina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri) Ria plans to sabotage the relationship in any way she can, by either finding dirt on him or even planting it herself.

I will try and avoid talking about where the plot goes after as part of the fun of watching this film (as well as most let's be real) is to know as little as possible, I was fortunate enough to not see a trailer for this as it ruins a bit more the film's more bizarre twist and turns. Because of this, I found myself almost rooting for this relationship to continue as Salim seems too good to be true thanks to one brief dinner scene between him and Rena and found Ria's attitude to be almost psychotic as she is seemingly dictating her sister's life choices in a way that's almost toxic, all in the name of independence and empowerment from the shackles of patriarchy. I don't know If I would have felt this way about the first half had I watched the trailer prior.

The style that this movie consists of is a whole lot of slow motion, big dramatic beats in the soundtrack and text at the bottom of the screen before each fight scene occurs. It's not exactly the most original aesthetic there is out there, but where it's most effective is in the first half where it gives us a glimpse into what is going on in Ria's mind. The scene when she learns that Rena and Salim are engaged is a comedic highlight for me as shots of the ring on a finger and Ria dropping a broken piece of artwork Rena made on the floor accompanied by slow-motion and dramatic sound design, replicate what is going on in her internally. The style proves charming for about 10 minutes but after that, it starts to wear thin to the point where you want the movie to take a break.

I liked that in other moments where Ria is no longer present (which doesn't happen very often) the movie takes a back seat from being in your face, almost as if real life and growing up have taken over. Had the movie had a balance between being an imitator/parody of other movies vs the domestic side of things, focusing on Ria's aspirations and her childish sensibilities all told as an action movie VS the more calm, laid-back, adult and realistic aspirations that Rena has opted for all told as a regular drama, a more interesting movie could have been made from that in my opinion. However, those moments of calm don't happen very much and it's only when things take a more serious turn in the second half is when the movie goes all out with its action/comedic style.

It's also where the action side of the movie flounders as each fight scene from then on, despite having moments of both creative and comedic flare, feels too limited for what it needed to accomplish. Don't be fooled by the marketing which gives a lot of emphasis on the action and combat, when things do reach that point after a lot of buildup, the fight scenes are way too short and are ruined by too much slow-mo giving the viewer enough time to view the gags on display thus making it harder to appreciate any proper choreography that went into this.

The movie disappointingly becomes more predictable as it goes along in spite of the unexpected twist about the intent surrounding the relationship, not helped by the fact that the movie has plot points and setups that are clearly sign-posted early on, I wonder if Ria, will finally achieve that karate kick that she can't master, I wonder if famous British Stuntwoman Eunice Huthart will finally respond to her fan mail, I wonder if her sworn school enemy (Shona Babayemi) who she constantly has choreographed fights in school will be a friend by then end who will be there in all the action. It's ironic that there is even a self-aware line in a dialogue said by her two comedic relief friends about how "tropes exist because they work" seeing how the film misses the difference between parodying the tropes commonplace in mainstream films and just straight-up doing them. Not least that said friends are the two most tropiest characters I have ever seen.

The movie's biggest saving grace is in its cast and just how much fun they seem to be having. Kansara and Arya are believable as the two sisters with different interests in their life choices and I enjoyed the scene when they both beat their brains out over Ria's constant interference with the relationship. The standout performance however is from Nimra Bucha as Rena's soon to be mother in law who chews the scenery effortlessly with her malevolent and ruthless screen presence, she finds the perfect balance between being so comedic in how over-the-top villainous she is but still managing to make sure you the audience believe her as a legitimate threat who is capable of anything just to get her own way.

All in all, the oddly named Polite Society (I'm I missing something here) has its moments and is probably a much more entertaining experience viewing it with a receptive crowd, I just feel like it could have been so much more but at all times it just plays things too safely, If the movie found a better balance between all of it's comedic action aesthetic instead of being so over the top and in your face at every moment and if there was a lot more action that is better coordinated as opposed for opting for slow-mo just for comedic effect, I think I would have enjoyed it more. As it is the movie is worthy of a rental. I admire the ideas and ambition, which makes me more frustrated when they are not executed to their fullest potential.

Polite Society is out in UK cinemas now.