After realizing he loves his best friend, Tom (Patrick Dempsey) decides to pledge his love. The only trouble is Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) has just gotten engaged to a Scottish noble (Kevin McKidd) and has asked Tom to be her maid of honor. Of course he accepts (leading to mayhem) and tries to win her for himself (leading to mischief).What follows is exactly what you’d expect. Tom struggles with his duties as maid of honor and his inability to stop the wedding and tell Hannah his true feelings.
Although the film isn’t awful, it lacks any spark or reason for us to care about these people. Hannah doesn’t seem better off with Tom or Colin than she would be on her own. And Tom’s sudden need to express his feelings reeks more of desperation than true love.
Monaghan and Dempsey are fine in the leads, but they come off more as good friends than characters who the audience should be rooting to get together.
The real problem is the writing. The film never puts forth any effort when tired cliché will do. We get Tom being mistaken for gay (because what straight man would be a maid of honor), Tom wearing a tiny kilt, misunderstandings, the jealous best girlfriend (Busy Phillips) trying to wreck Tom’s role as maid of honor, trips to lingerie shops and dildo presentations. Don’t even get me started on the recurring joke of the glow-in-the-dark pleasure beads (don’t ask).
This is one of those films if you happened to turn on the television and discover you might watch for a few minutes and either 1) fall asleep or 2) change the channel and promptly forget its existence. The screenwriters take My Best Friend’s Wedding (which itself isn’t a great film, but is far superior to this attempt), swap the genders, and amp up the craziness, because… Well, that’s the real question, isn’t it? Sadly there’s some talented performers here, nice locations, and a friendship which could have been the heart of a better film, all wasted on a braindead romantic comedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment