East Is East scribe Ayub Khan-Din adapts his own play Rafta, Rafta, which in turn was an update of Bill Naughton's 60s play Honeymoon Deferred, which Naughton later adapted himself into a screenplay for Roy Boulting's 1966 comedy-drama The Family Way, starring Haley and John Mills. Still with me? Okay.
Atul (Richie) and Vina (Karan) are a newly married who have waited patiently for the wedding night. Things don't go according to plan, however: Atuls's drunk Eeshwar (Patel) constantly makes a nuisance of himself and spoils the mood; the bed breaking doesn't help matters. But hey – they're off on their honeymoon the next day so they can wait one more night. Or are they? Upon arrival at the airport they discover the travel company has gone bust and the newlyweds are forced to spend their holiday with Atul's folks. As time goes by sexual frustration kicks in and starts to eat into the marriage...
All In Good Time is likeable but when director Nigel Cole (Made In Dagenham) and Khan-Din struggle to find increasingly silly reasons for their characters not to have sex the comedy it veers close to sit-com territory. Too close. The causes they come up with to get in the way of the couple's 'enjoyment' start out being slightly amusing but soon become ridiculous and taxing – dad going to the toilet next door, dad snoring next door, hearing dad and mum (a lovely Syal) having sex, etc. It's all too forced and predictable. In the middle of this is a rather unconvincing subplot of son versus dad and a seething tension that will eventually come to a head; when dad eventually apologises to his son for how he brought him up, this reviewer was still in the dark as to what dad did that was so terrible. Plus, there's an unnecessary complication towards the close that doesn’t add anything to the main or subplots.
But All In Good Time is too pleasant to get mad at. It hops along and Khan-Din doesn't get bogged down in the culture clash he explored in East Is East. Richie is charming, Karan (Jason Schwartzmann's love interest in Darjeeling Limited) is delightful, as is Syal and Patel. We've just seen this before.