Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Awful comedy about inept wedding planner; language, sex.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Disconnect: The Wedding Planner
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Otis (Pascal Tokodi) is a soulless, charmless Nairobi playboy who is about to lose his family business if he doesn't come up with funding in DISCONNECT: THE WEDDING PLANNER. Otis has a prospective investor, Dele, who is concerned that his imminent wedding isn't shaping up. To gain Dele's favor, Otis volunteers to plan the wedding, even though he hasn't the slightest idea how to do it. His makeshift plans for a destination wedding in Kenya fall apart and he desperately calls on his skeptical friends to help him pull it off at the last minute. They travel to Kenya and start making last-minute arrangements, not knowing that Dele and his fiancée specified that they wanted a traditional Yoruba wedding. Fist fights break out. Committed couples stray and hook up with others. The mother-in-law arrives and yells at everyone who has been working hard to make the wedding happen under already stressful conditions. Otis, the committed bachelor, is described by a friend as someone who "swings from one cleavage to another." Somehow, he realizes he loves a woman he has long been taking for granted. Will this all end on a happy note?
Is It Any Good?
Disconnect: The Wedding Planner has almost no redeeming qualities. The humor isn't funny. The plot makes no sense. What millionaire would entrust the last-minute planning of his elaborate wedding to anyone but an experienced wedding planner? Once the plot lays out this incredible decision as its fueling premise, nothing that follows is either believable or interesting. Characters lack depth. New people are introduced as if they'll be important and then disappear forever. The plot turns go nowhere.
Although the movie takes pains to declare itself non-sexist, men say horrible things about women, then are mildly corrected by more enlightened types. One notes that women "are human beings" as if that were news. Humor is supposed to be the point of a scene featuring an incompetent, uncaring therapist counseling a testy couple with problems. Like the rest of the movie, it isn't funny.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why a wealthy man would casually entrust the planning of his imminent wedding to a non-professional. How does the implausibility of the opening action affect the rest of a farfetched plot?
Does the filmmaker make it easy to follow the action? What could be done to make the plot flow more smoothly and understandably?
The main characters all seem to have relationship problems. What do you think the movie is trying to say about romantic relationships?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : January 13, 2023
- Cast : Ozioma Jesus , Catherine Kamau , Patricia Kihoro
- Director : Tosh Gitonga
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 106 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : January 24, 2023
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate