Waiting for the Death in ‘Til Death Do Us Part’

Who was it that began the tradition of poaching upon the Top 40 as a means of providing counterpoint and backgrounding in movies? “Til Death Do Us Part,” the new action film directed by Timothy Woodward Jr., trots out one retro sha-la-la song after another — or, at least, cunning approximations thereof — in the context of incongruous and, often, violent doings.Irony is the rationale behind such a tack, and you can’t help but wonder if it isn’t getting a bit tired. The first scene of “Til Death Do Us Part” lights upon the interior of a church and a lone man, dressed in a tux, sitting in the pews. He’s awaiting a wedding party and working on his best man’s speech. The soundtrack provides a heart-warming wash of rom-com solicitude. We get it: Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more. Caprice is the order of the day.“Til Death Do Us Part” is a tersely stated mash-up of “Runaway Bride” and the revenge picture of your choice. I’ll choose “Free Fire,” Ben Wheatley’s sardonic shoot-em-up from 2016 — if only because its setting is similarly constrained. That time around, a Boston warehouse was the locale in which an alarming amount of gunplay took place. This time, it’s a rambling mansion on a Puerto Rican estate, the home belonging to the father of the bride. The latter is played by Natalie Burn, the Ukrainian actress born Natalia Guslistaya, who also serves as the film’s producer.Ms. Burn is new to me, though she’s appeared in a spate of big-budget Hollywood movies as well as more specialized fare geared toward her expertise in martial arts. She cuts a lean-and-mean figure, what with an angular carriage capable of pretzel-like contortions. There’s cinematic hocus-pocus at work in the action scenes, sure, but it’s worth noting that Ms. Burn is the daughter of a ballerina. At age 8, she was admitted to Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet School and later studied at the Royal Ballet School at London. The actress’s rangy physicality is its own special effect.“Til Death Do Us Part” is an elemental film. The characters don’t have names. They have designations: “Bride,” “Bestman,” and groomsmen one through seven, though no. 2 does have a nom de plume: Big Sexy. Intermittent flashbacks fill out the back story, but the plot pretty much begins at Point A and sprints — or, rather, kicks, slugs, and backflips — to Point B. The Bride (Ms. Burn) leaves The Groom (Ser’Darius Blain, smooth as silk) high and dry on their wedding day. There’s only one thing a heartbroken groom-to-be can do: send the wedding party to retrieve his one true love.Retrieve, please, and not kill. The major players in the picture are all graduates of a shady international organization referred to as “The University.” The school’s primary curriculum is murder-for-hire. The administration frowns upon its students leaving the fold — which is exactly what our heroine wants to do. The loving middle-aged couple she and her fiance meet at a hotel bar, Nicole Arlyn and a cornpone Jason Patric, reiterates her longing for a quiet, normal life. Hence, her bolting from the altar.There is, as you might have surmised, hell to pay for Ms. Burn’s character, and “Til Death Do Us Part” is an extended power play between a lone woman and a bunch of guys. The multicultural cast is put through its paces and turned on its head through means that are as extravagantly pugilistic as they are expertly contrived. The scene in which the Bride and Groom meet again is drawn out to a fault — so much so that when the title of the film finally earns its keep, we can’t help but sigh with relief. Is “Perfect Airplane Fodder” a commendation? With Ms. Burn at the center, absolutely.

Waiting for the Death in ‘Til Death Do Us Part’

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