Not quite a pure drama, not quite a pure comedy, the scrappy charmer also is a love triangle sharing a point with a love rectangle, both hinging on Sarah (Lizzy Caplan, Bachelorette), an artist and bookstore manager who takes the plunge by moving in with her rocker boyfriend, Kevin (Geoffrey Arend, Devil), but bails when he abruptly proposes and rebounds with Jonathan (Mark Webber, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), an awkward marine-life student.
Sarah's relationship troubles occur as her sister, Beth (Alison Brie, TV's Mad Men and Community), seems to have hers all sewn up; she's engaged to Andrew (Martin Starr, TV's Party Down), who's best buds and bandmates with Kevin.
Directed and co-written by Michael Mohan, Save the Date works well enough, but would work better if I were 20 years younger. It must be a generational thing that all the guys look unwashed and greasy. I can believe the independent-minded, easygoing Sarah could fall for that look, but not that the put-together, prim-and-proper, every-hair-in-place Beth would find a life partner in a perpetual moper in T-shirts who barely has enough energy to shuffle across the room.
If this rom-com were a tweet, its hashtag would be "#whitepeopleproblems" or perhaps "#hipsterdilemma." Since the characters' particular pickles are either of their own doing or not really predicaments at all, it was tough for me relate to it or sympathize with them. But it's cute and sweet, with a big heart in the right place, continually thumping thanks to Caplan, who deserves to be a brighter star. —Rod Lott
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