Clichéd Maid...er, Made

Made of Honor
Directed by Paul Weiland
Columbia Pictures



As the leading lady of our humble filmic foursome, I find it my duty to get myself to the theater for the occasional chick flick, so as not to disappoint our feminine readers. We can't be ALL action, superheroes, and horror, now can we? Though I eagerly handed over my discount movie ticket to see Iron Man (see review below this one!) and though horror is my preferred genre, I decided to accompany my mother this afternoon to see the new Patrick Dempsey film My Best Friend's Wedding. No, wait, that had Julia Roberts. This one was The Wedding Planner. Nope. Wrong again. Have we seen this one before? Ye-ah...the understatement of the year. This go-round has been titled Made of Honor.



The film stars Dempsey as Tom, the inventor of "Coffee Collars" (those cardboard wraps around the Starbucks cups -- who knew?), who meets his best friend in college when he accidentally gets into her bed, thinking it's her roommate. It's actually not as funny as it sounds. Anyway, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) gives him quite a few pieces of her mind and ten years later, they're spending every Sunday and each of Tom's father's weddings (6, to be exact) together as the closest of pals. When Hannah travels to Scotland for work, Tom is lost without her for six whole weeks. Being quite the womanizer (complete with rules about not seeing girls on back-to- back nights), he tries to fill their Sunday ritual with alternate pals. Quite obviously, this doesn't work and, during a few heart-to-heart chats with the boys during, what else, basketball games, he comes to realize that he loves Hannah and wants to be with her. Unfortunately, when she returns, she brings with her Colin (Kevin McKidd) who is tall, blond, and accented - Scottish, of course. They're engaged and Hannah wants Tom to be her Maid of Honor.



What follows is Tom's plan to reveal his true feelings to Hannah while balancing his MoH duties - dress alterations for the bridesmaids (a short, chubby girl wants a size 8! Hysterical!), bridal shower (predictably ruined by the entertainment), and lingerie shopping with the bride ("No, Colin will hate that."...shocking). He travels to Scotland for the wedding and for more examples of why Colin is the perfect man all the while toiling with his desicion to tell Hannah he loves her.

As a whole, the movie is fluff. The acting is simply so-so, the writing is flat, and the plot is so clichéd, even die-hard romantic comedy fans who love this stuff will be unimpressed. Michelle Monaghan really does nothing for this film; Weiland could have cast anyone off the street and the acting quality would be no different. The supporting cast, including Kadeem Hardison (of Dwayne Wayne fame!) as Felix, Tom's married buddy, and Busy Philipps as Melissa, the cousin who wanted to be MoH and tries to foil all of Tom's good intentions, is simply that - support for a film that's about to drown in a Scottish lake of predictability.



Dempsey, the reformed geek of the 80s (remember Can't Buy Me Love?) and star of Grey's Anatomy, is capitalizing on his McDreaminess in this film. I just can't buy him as a womanizer with a heart of gold. It's too far-fetched and it's just not the Dempsey we're all used to seeing. Even McDreamy doesn't act this way. In Enchanted, Dempsey seemed more real, and THAT was a DISNEY movie. Here, the role seems forced and a way to get Grey's fans to pay $10.50 for a movie ticket. As a fan of the show, and of his earlier work, I'm very disappointed in his role here - though seeing him juggle china plates was rather cool, as he studied aspired to attend Clown College as a teen.

Overall, this isn't a movie to rush off to see. There are far too many more rom-coms out there with heart that are worth the price of admission. Dare I say, P.S. I Love You ? A film I loathed due to how far-fetched it was? Unlike Made, at least you cared for the characters in that movie. It's not surprising that Iron Man made over $80 million more than this romantic comedy. Honor your men, ladies, and please don't drag them to this one. You're better off renting Julia Roberts's 1997 version instead.



Made of Honor is now playing in theaters.