The Wedding Ringer by Kiki Prager

ANONYMOUS CONTENT – COVERAGE Title: The Wedding Ringer

Subm'd To: Anonymous Content

Author: Kerry Reardon

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Form: Novel

Company:

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Budget: N/A

Setting: Columbus, Ohio

Date: 10/2020

Circa: 2020 Reader: Kiki Prager ____________________________________________________________ LOGLINE: When a down-on-her-luck woman meets a stranger who offers her a job as a professional bridesmaid at her wedding, she develops a new friendship and flirtation with the dreamy best man, causing her to reconsider the escape she had been saving up for. ____________________________________________________________ COMMENTS SUMMARY: The Wedding Ringer is an original piece of female fiction with a firecracker of a concept that sheds light on issues of rape/trauma. Despite plot points that feel all too familiar to the genre, the descriptive writer expresses the protagonist’s emotions and mental struggles in way that the reader can feel them, providing more than enough visualization for a direct translation to the screen. ____________________________________________________________ EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR PREMISE

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SUMMARY Depressed and anxious former blogger WILLA CALLISTER (29) spends her time dressed head to toe as a children’s birthday party performer in order to save up to make a getaway from the toxic memories of Columbus, Ohio, which is home to the root of her massive trust issues. In an event she refers to as “The Incident,” Willa walked in on her best friend and longtime college roommate, SARAH, having sex with her fiancé MAX a mere six weeks before their wedding was supposed to take place. Willa, who separates her life before and after “the incident,” used to be a lifestyle reporter, Instagram influencer, and adventurous Columbus “it-girl” but has turned into a person she doesn’t recognize, haunted by loneliness, anger, and social anxiety. Now on antidepressants, Willa not only suffers from a broken heart but also from severe writer’s block. The Incident rendered Willa too embarrassed to post any of her “feeble” writing attempts on her blog, to lose contact with all of her friends, and to stop paying her bills. Now she lives with her nieces and health-conscious protective sister STACEY (34), who is the owner of the partyplanning company which employs her. Stacey and her wife GLORY (30s), have three kids named LUCY (8 months), MAEVE (3), and KAYA (6). They maintain a harmonious coparenting relationship with Stacey’s former husband NATE (30s) and their spry next-door neighbor RUTHIE (83), who hosts a weekly game night. One day Willa decides to go on a date with a man named Zachary at a local coffee shop, but he stands her up. A friendless zoo habitat specialist and fan of Willa’s former blog named MAISIE (28) sits down next to her and begs Willa to pretend like they’re friends in front of her fiancée, FINN. Maisie has convinced Finn that she goes for coffee dates with a friend every Monday to hide the fact that she goes “someplace else.” The two of them talk, and Maisie offers Willa $200 to pretend like they’re friends. The next day, Maisie shows up at the house, and Stacey urges Willa to give the strange woman a chance. Maisie, who says her wedding means everything to her, asks Willa to be her bridesmaid and offers to pay $5000. Needing the money to make a planned escape from Columbus and start over in a different city, she accepts. At a trendy rooftop lounge, Willa meets a tall, dark, and handsome man in an elevator who she deems an asshole named LIAM RAFFERTY (30s), a pediatrician who turns out to be Finn’s best friend and best man. Willa realizes that she had previously met him while dressed as a princess at her birthday party gig, where he teased her and calls her “Sparkles,” a poor initial meeting which left her with a sour taste in her mouth and under the impression that he is a jerk. On the rooftop, the two discuss social media and Liam describes his opinion of it as vapid. Over tacos, Maisie tells Willa about Finn’s sister LORENE and his disapproving, dramatic, demeaning mother, MRS. FORSYTHE, who she isn’t fond of. Maisie asks Willa to drop off the deposit for her wedding cake, where she bumps into Liam. The next week, Willa visits Finn’s house as the wedding guests prepare for her bridal shower. Here, she meets Mrs. Forsythe, Lorene, and ROSE, Finn’s cousin. Back home, Kaya gets a fever and is taken to the hospital where the doctor assigned to her is none other than Dr. Liam, diagnoses a ruptured appendix, and has her taken away on a gurney. Liam’s heroic act changes Willa’s opinion of him, and she allows him to take her for tacos and margaritas, where the two relate in their “almost married” breakup stories. They both admit that they deleted their social media accounts after their breakups and talk about the repercussions of losing several friends. Liam is the first person Willa

tells about “The Incident,” and it’s the first time she’s said Sarah’s name aloud in months. She feels sexual tension but rejects it because of his relationship with her as a “coworker” in the bridal operation. The two of them can’t help but kiss before Liam drives her home. Willa claims it to be the “best kiss of her life” on a blog post she says she’ll never publish and vows to never kiss newly monikered “Dr. Dreamboat” again. During dinner at Ruthie’s, Willa dishes to her date to Maisie and realizes how much she missed engaging in girl talk. The next morning she applies to a host of small jobs in beach towns across the country. A group of Maisie’s friends and Finn’s family embark on a Bachelorette party weekend getaway in Hocking Hills full of yoga, wine and cheese, s’mores, and horseback riding. The girls hear a group of guys yelling, partying, and playing jumbo beer pong nearby and decide to play truth or dare. Rose is dared to crash their party, and breaks her ankle on her way there. After the group of intoxicated women knock out the idea of driving to the hospital, Rose offers that they call Liam, who is at his cabin that weekend. An awkward visit at the hospital where Willa desperately tries to conceal her explosive bout of feelings for Liam ends with her caving and revealing her feelings, leading Liam to ask her on another date. With that, the two go back to his cabin together to hook up. The next day, Maisie opens up to Willa, and Maisie eventually opens up about her experience with anxiety and reveals that what she’s been hiding from Finn and all of her friends is that she goes to therapy on Mondays instead of the coffee shop lie she’s been hiding behind. On Willa and Liam’s date, Willa bumps into a now-pregnant Sarah, who apologizes profusely while tears stream down her face. Max gets up to approach them but is quickly shut down by both Willa and Liam, and promptly leaves the restaurant. Back at home, Willa announces to her sister that she’s moving to Myrtle Beach. Stacey protests this, arguing that running away won’t change anything and that she should be close to family, Maisie, and “Mr. Dreamboat.” After eventually being convinced to stay, Willa calls Liam, and he tells her Maisie has gone missing. Willa drives over to her house to find Rose, Liam, Lorene, and Mr. and Mrs. Forsythe gathered. Mrs. Forsythe explains to the group that Maisie told her son that she was getting cold feet about the wedding and needed a day or two to think things over. When Finn points out that he noticed Maisie has been withdrawing large sums of money over the last few months from their joint savings account, Mrs. Forsythe jumps the gun and accuses Maisie of being a heroin addict. This angers Willa, who finally decides to reveal to the group that she was hired by Maisie to pretend to her friend and bridesmaid. All comes crashing down as Liam expresses his discontent about being lied to, and the group splits up to go find Maisie. Willa heads to the coffee shop and finds her crying at the same table they initially met, bringing the story full circle. Maisie finally tells Willa what happened to her: she was raped by a boy as a teenager and was disowned by her parents, who she found out won’t be attending her wedding. Maisie explains how years of therapy have helped her become who she is today and how she hoped that a big beautiful wedding might lead to her parents’ forgiveness. Willa tells Maisie that she’s not running away anymore and encourages her to follow through with her wedding dream regardless of her parents’ attendance. At Maeve’s fourth birthday party, Liam shows up and asks Willa to be his date to his best friend’s wedding. The story ends as Willa happily participates as a bridesmaid in Maisie and Finn’s wedding, which occurs at the Africa Event Center at The Columbus Zoo.

COMMENTS This comical and relevant script captures the zeitgeist of the millennium with its mention of celebrities like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Dr. Phil, Steve Harvey, and even RGB. There are also references to pop culture such as Game of Thrones, The Hobbit, and Clueless. Dating applications such as Tinder are discussed as well as the ridiculousness of taking over thirty minutes to get the perfect Snapchat. During the weekend getaway, the characters drink White Claws, a popular alcohol-enhanced seltzer beverage among young adults. Therefore, this book will appeal mostly to a target audience of millennials and the surrounding generations. For an adaptation, producers may want to consider giving the story a different title because of the existence of the 2015 romantic comedy of the same name. Some of the characters seem unbelievable or fake, such as a minor character representing one of Willa’s old friends, Jennifer, who was “so, so, sad to hear about engagement ending.” Aside from cliché characters, there are definitely some plot points that feel familiar, such as Willa’s opinion of Liam changing from a “total douchecanoe” to a saint as soon as he saves someone she cares about. Her opinion also changes on their first date, when she learns that he’s been cheated on as well. While there are plot similarities reminiscent of traditional romantic comedies, this one distinguishes itself by being undeniably modern. With slightly feminist nods, the main character’s blogging career, and the constant discussion of the pros and cons of social media, this novel is a contemporary piece of female fiction. Reardon is a talented writer in terms of comedic dialogue and does well with writing sarcasm, especially for a specific character like Liam. She delves into the way Willa feels about certain people or things by using a very personal narrative voice and by utilizing blog posts, which frequently occur throughout the book. An adaptation may benefit from the use of voiceover for these blurbs of writing, which are Willa’s beliefs and stream of consciousness. There are aspects of the story which can be relatable to young adult singles, such as the instance of catching feelings for someone that you try to convince yourself you can’t be with, thinking that social media is vain, or pretending to be someone you’re not. In addition to this relatability, there are also underlying themes of rape, trauma, and mental well-being. The novel’s openness about mental illness brings a great appeal and singles it out from other typical romcoms. With the former demonization of psychiatric medications in the media, the frequent jokes and mentions of antidepressants are important in working towards normalizing them. These issues are explored through comical comparisons of therapy to something everyone tries, such as “hot yoga,” and Willa’s response when Rose suggests that “nature is the greatest antidepressant,” saying, “Personally, I’ve found Citalopram to be the best antidepressant, but nature probably helps, too.” With relevant humor, modern dialogue, and a fighting of the stigmas around therapy and mental illness, I believe this script will appeal to many, but especially younger audiences who can relate to the digital world of romance we currently reside in.