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Saturday, January 25, 2014

Made of Honor (2008) [PG-13] ***



Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) have been best friends since their senior year in college. Ten years later they're still best friends, but Hannah may be the only beautiful girl in New York City with whom the womanizing Tom hasn't slept.

Tom is rich and arrogant, having invented the coffee collar, the corrugated paper sleeve that keeps your fingers cool. He drives a classic E-Type Jaguar, regards women as sex objects and believes Hannah should be available whenever he needs her. His idea of perfection is variety in his sex life and companionship with Hannah for balance. When Hanna goes on a six-week art acquisition trip to Scotland, however, Tom misses her terribly, and decides to tell her so. Unfortunately, when she returns, she's accompanied by Colin (Kevin McKidd) a rich, handsome, titled Scotsman whom she introduces to Tom as her fiance. Hannah plans to marry Colin at his ancestral summer home in Scotland, and asks Tom to be her maid of honor. Tom agrees, although his plan is to sabotage the romance and stop the wedding.

There are few surprises in Made of Honor; the love story is poorly scripted, and the characters are not well developed. Even worse is the casting; after Patrick Dempsey starred for years as a wimpy surgeon on Grey's Anatomy, we're supposed to believe that his character is a player? I don't think so. Worst of all, we know from the beginning how it will end. There is very little romantic chemistry between Tom and Hannah, and their first real falling-in-love moment doesn't occur until the day before the Scottish wedding. As a result, we don't develop a strong desire to see Tom and Hannah as a couple. Thankfully, the boorish, insensitive Colin minimizes the possibility that we would prefer seeing Hannah marry him. And Hannah does far too little soul-searching before finally choosing Tom. The cinematography is magnificent, and Sydney Pollack and Kathleen Quinlan are good in supporting rules as Tom's father and Hannah's mother. For more satisfying wedding-themed, light romantic comedies, I suggest Lucky Seven with Patrick Dempsey and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and The Wedding Date with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. 

Labels: comedy, romance, wedding

Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 37/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=40, viewers=66)
Blu-ray1
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