Happily Never After

Sophie Steinbeck stands at the altar on her wedding day, fully aware that her groom, Stuart Lauren, has been cheating on her. She discovered explicit texts between Stuart and a woman named Becca two nights earlier, but she cannot call off the wedding because Stuart's father employs her dad and would fire him out of spite. With the help of her best friend Asha, Sophie has hired a professional wedding objector named Max Parks. Max stands during the service, announces Stuart's infidelity, and absorbs a punch from the groom without flinching. The wedding collapses with the blame falling on Stuart.

Max comes to the honeymoon suite to collect his fee and finds Sophie throwing Twinkies off the balcony at a Volvo in the parking lot. She persuades him to stay for drinks and shares her belief that romantic love is a biological trick, arguing that "true love" is merely a label for highly functioning partnerships. Max tells her how he became an objector: He once helped an office admin named Hannah escape her wedding to the governor's cheating son, and word of mouth turned it into a side hustle. Before they fall asleep on the couch, Sophie half-jokingly suggests she could be "the Objectress to your Objector," offering to serve as his female partner in wedding objections.

Four months later, Max recruits Sophie for a new job. She is now the Human Resources (HR) Director at Nesbo Inc. and lives in Stuart's former apartment with two elderly roommates she took on to afford the rent: Larry, a 77-year-old man in skinny jeans, and Rose, a white-haired woman with two cats. Max asks Sophie to object at the wedding of his friend TJ, whose fiancée Callie has been cheating with a man named Ronnie. TJ cannot end the engagement because Callie's father holds his mortgage and her brothers are local cops. Sophie agrees if Max accompanies her.

At the ceremony, Sophie objects and names the affair. Callie attacks her, but Sophie throws the bride off and puts her in a headlock until Callie's father intervenes. Sophie and Max sprint to his truck, laughing. That evening, Sophie asks for a selfie, explaining this is the first night since her wedding that she has not cried about Stuart. As they take the photo, chemistry flares between them. They nearly kiss but pull apart.

Two parallel motivations emerge. Max's father built Parks Construction and wants to retire to Florida with Max's mother, Lorna, but Lorna refuses to move until all her children are in serious relationships. Max, the youngest and only unmarried sibling, is the holdout. Meanwhile, Sophie's boss Edie warns that workaholism and a nonexistent social life are undermining Sophie's candidacy for the vice president (VP) role, and urges her to get her personal life on track.

Sophie proposes that they "milk" their friendship publicly: spend time together, post photos on social media, and let people draw conclusions. After grocery shopping at Max's parents' house, they share their first real kiss in the driveway, witnessed by his parents. Sophie frames it as an experiment in "kissing for myself," claiming Max could have been anyone. Max is frustrated but agrees to the plan.

At a black-tie wedding, they object to the marriage of 21-year-old Ashley to her 40-year-old, controlling fiancé Evan. When Evan aggressively confronts Sophie, Max throws the first punch of his life. Afterward, he kisses Sophie against the wall of a roadside diner. Sophie insists the chemistry is impersonal.

Their lives intertwine through regular lunches, morning runs, and FaceTime calls timed to be witnessed by the right people. The strategy works: Max's parents prepare for Florida, and Sophie's promotion prospects advance. One night, they exchange explicit texts about a hotel mirror and shower, unable to stop the escalation.

A couple in Detroit hires them to object at their wedding, paying for travel and hotel. At the hotel bar, Sophie tells Max she wants to kiss him. He pulls her to a basement stairwell where they make out against the wall, but he refuses to go further because they are both drunk, telling her that if she still wants this when sober, he is hers. After objecting at the ceremony the next day, Sophie knocks on Max's hotel room door and frames what she wants as an extension of her kissing experiment. She takes charge in bed for the first time, and Max internally acknowledges he is falling in love. The next morning, their eyes meet in a mirror above the hotel refrigerator, a moment Max describes as being "undone."

At the airport, Sophie suggests friends with benefits. Max firmly refuses, suspecting he is already in love and hoping that ending the physical relationship will force Sophie to confront her feelings. At his condo, he tells her he could fall for her if they continue. Sophie's voice cracks when she agrees to stop.

A new job arrives through Larry's connections: a groom named Garrett whose fiancée, Lilibeth Palmer, is allegedly unfaithful. Max freezes. Lilibeth is his serious ex-girlfriend, the woman who left him two years ago. He tells Sophie to pass without explaining why. When he later reveals the truth, Sophie argues she can handle the wedding alone. Max asks her not to, but Sophie proceeds and aces her VP interview. When she calls Max to celebrate and mentions the Lilibeth wedding is still on, he cancels their plans. Sophie is devastated.

Max meets Lili and warns her that Garrett suspects an affair. Lili confesses she has feelings for someone else and hoped Garrett would end things himself. Max realizes he no longer has romantic feelings for her. He buys champagne, flowers, and ice cream and rushes to Sophie's apartment, but Sophie has learned that Lili called off the wedding after "an old friend" warned her. Sophie confronts Max, her fury revealing jealousy. Max argues that her pain proves she has feelings. He confesses she has become his center. Sophie, crying, asks him to leave.

The next day, Larry is rushed to the emergency room (ER) with chest pains. Sophie races to the hospital and texts Max, who comes immediately. Larry tells Sophie that heartbreak is like falling while learning to walk and that denying herself love cannot feel worse than losing Max. Rose then reveals Larry was having an anxiety attack, not a heart attack, after being caught kissing the grocery delivery man. Despite the deception, his words resonate deeply.

Sophie goes to Max's building and waits in the lobby. Upstairs, over whiskey, she reads a PowerPoint presentation from her phone, apologizing for her behavior regarding Lilibeth. Max demands she put down the phone and say what she actually feels. Sophie erupts: she hates wanting to talk to him constantly, she vomited out her car window when she learned he went to see Lili, lavender now reminds her of the hotel shower where they were intimate, she replays the mirror sex constantly, she wants to get a dog with him, and she is terrified these feelings will destroy her. Max tells her he is broken too, but she is his favorite person. Sophie reads her concluding slide, declaring love is still a lie but coining the acronym FUCKRAH, standing for friendship, undeniable chemistry, kinship, respect, admiration, and happiness, to describe what she feels. She says she wants to have sex with him rather than just for herself.

They sleep together and become a couple. Max reads her full presentation while she retrieves pizza; one slide states that if she believed in love, "this is what it would feel like." He tells her he is "not in love but also kind of in love" with her. Sophie says the same and stays the night for the first time.

One year later, they hold a small wedding on the rooftop of their building. Larry and Rose perform a joke objection, declaring the couple "too perfect together." In the intervening year, Sophie received the VP promotion, Stuart resigned, Edie retired, Max's parents moved to Florida, and Max was promoted to president of Parks Construction. For their wedding night, Sophie takes Max to the Orchid Hotel, a historic 1915 building that is his first major restoration project as company president. She has set up candles and a mattress in the future honeymoon suite. Max tells Sophie she is his "goddamn favorite person," and they toast their marriage in the candlelit construction site, fully in love and no longer objecting to anything.