Dev Patel’s ‘Wedding Guest’ is more tour guide than action hero

A man shows up to a Pakistani wedding bearing zip ties, duct tape and guns, with designs on snatching the bride (Radhika Apte). But because the guy is played by Dev Patel — those sensitive eyes! — and the director is auteur Michael Winterbottom (“The Trip”), we know there’s likely more to “The Wedding Guest” than that.

And there is, though not in an entirely conventional sense; Winterbottom pays more attention to the colorful journey through Pakistan and India than fleshing out his lead characters. The pair hopscotch from one city to the next via rental cars and crowded trains and buses, the camera always caught up in dusty, dizzying ambiance.

There’s also a broader commentary here on the treatment of women, both in arranged marriage and in testosterone-heavy thrillers. Apte’s character stays largely an enigma throughout, but her palpable frustration with the men and culture around her — plus the chance to vicariously visit Goa, that jewel of an Indian seaside getaway — makes “The Wedding Guest” worth an RSVP.