Made of Honor
Year Released: 2008Directed By: Paul Weiland
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Kadeem Hardison, Chris Messina, Busy Philipps, Sydney Pollack
(PG-13, 101 min.)
I don't know the first thing about first-time writer Adam Sztykiel, but it's easy enough to imagine your average struggling screenwriter holed up in his apartment, bouncing a red rubber ball off the wall, and trying to come up with that killer idea that will get him out of debt and into celebrity sit-downs at the Chateau Marmont. And then
eureka: Made of Honor. "Get it? It's like 'maid of honor'
only with a dude playing the bridesmaid
and he's in love with the bride, who's his best friend, so it's like his best friend's wedding. This thing totally writes itself!" Well, writes itself into a lie. Dempsey (TV's Dr. McDreamy) plays Tom, a slick playboy who, having previously invented the "coffee collar," now passes his days playing pickup with the boys and picking up chicks at Starbucks chicks he will then subject to a ruthless set of dating rules meant to maximize his weekly influx of sexual encounters and minimize any messy emotional involvement. Best friend Hannah (Monaghan) is the go-to for family functions, antiques shopping, and a certain handsiness that only boy-and-girl-best-friends-in-the-movies are allowed (activities include linking arms, kissing on the mouth, and suction-cupping together for a nice slow dance). Then Hannah takes a six-week working vacation to Scotland, and absence makes Tom's heart sit up and go, "Huh, maybe I should reconsider the rules with my superhot best friend, who puts up with my preening and caddishness and emotional paralysis." Then Hannah returns home with a fianc้ named Colin (McKidd) and a Highlands wedding to plan (hello, travel-porn shots of Scottish vistas). The script can veer from mean-spirited to uncomfortably blue (case in point: Sydney "Easy Paycheck" Pollack's prenup negotiation for a weekly "BJ"), making for a tonal discordance all the more disappointing considering co-writers and husband-and-wife team Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan got just the right read on mixing raunch with heart-on-the-sleeve sweets in Can't Hardly Wait. But forget all that: What this really comes down to is the film's central lie. Made of Honor pins its hopes on a character who acts utterly without honor and on an actor who has only two settings sensitive or smarmy. The smarm wins, and that half-smirk Dempsey wears throughout is not that of Prince Charming, but a prick.
Kimberley Jones [2008-05-02]
