I enjoyed the first five minutes of Ceremony, where the main character is reading from his children's book in a library, and the camera slowly pans back to reveal all empty seats, except for one adult, who applauds enthusiastically at the reading's conclusion. It was original and funny, and I thought I was in for a good movie.
I couldn't have been more wrong. The rest of the movie is plagued with one-note characters, (mostly) uninteresting dialogue, and good actor's talents wasted. All of the plot points have been done before, and better (e.g. the lovelorn sap chases down the woman he loves who is slated to marry a jerk). Uma Thurman's fiancé is so blatantly obviously a jerk as to be a caricature (in an unfunny way), and it is unbelievable that an intelligent woman would see enough in this man to marry him.
The class differences at the resort is an old, tired plot device, as was the outdoor scavenger-hunt the host's family traditionally plays, which veered into the ridiculous.
I'll give one example of a poorly thought out scene. Uma Thurman visit's the main character in his guest room to talk, since they were old flames. Up to this point it has been established that the room is very hot and stuffy. Yet she walks into the room carrying a sleeping bag, then crawls into it during their conversation. A moment later in the discussion she says "it's too hot to talk about that issue," all the while buried up to her neck in the sleeping bag under the pretence of keeping herself 'safe' from her former flame (no, there was no sexual tension at all, they were just having an uninteresting discussion about their past relationship). The movie is riddled with head-scratching moments like this, as if the writer was also the proofreader and didn't catch errors in logic (or overdone clichés).
The best friend, who has been used by the main character finally leaves, which is the only believable occurrence in the movie. Then he inexplicably comes back! The only possible explanation for this was his attraction to the female caterer; I was hoping to see some dialogue between them which would have been a welcome distraction from the boring leads but she never speaks! None of the movie's problems are the fault of the actors, I blame the script.
