by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
C + Rated PG-13 101 min
Watching this film is like eating a Big Mac, you know its cheap fast food that's really not that great, but it tastes so good while you're eating it. Directed by Paul Weiland and written by committee, Made Of Honor goes for the female romantic jugular by casting Patrick Dempsey as the dreamy lead and putting him in a cliché situation which titillates young women, hung up on the marriage ceremony.
This well worn script has been around Hollywood forever. I can think of at least four similar scenarios in the past twenty years. Although it's blatantly paint-by-numbers filmmaking, Made Of Honor was expertly executed and acted by a highly compatible cast. It's shameless exploitation of all things that make young women giggle and swoon.
Still, this scenario is the closest to a sure thing that Hollywood can muster in these hard times. Admittedly, I was conflicted watching the film. Yes, part of me was almost enjoying this pap, and the other half was cringing at the spoonful of sentimental molasses that was being shoved down my throat. Ah yes, at least the acting was solid and the scenes were meticulously staged, setting up the inevitable finale.
In this style of romantic comedy, boy meets girl, falls deeply in love, but he sleeps with many other women while carrying on a platonic friendship with her, and doesn't realize that all this time, she's the one. But it's almost too late, because she's about to marry someone else. Oh my, this really turns-on women, who get all giddy inside.
Patrick Dempsey plays Tom, who invented the paper that goes around a hot coffee cup and is independently wealthy. He spends most of his time bedding different women-never twice in a row. He pals around with his best friend, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) with whom he enjoys a non-sexual friendship. The two are close and in love but are blissfully unaware of their romantic entanglement. To Hannah, Tom is not ready to give up his bachelor lifestyle, and Tom is still into bed-them-and-forget them mode.
Hannah has to travel to Scotland on business and Tom misses her more than he thought he would. He's beginning to realize that he's been a fool and he should have told her he loved her. One day, he has an epiphany that he wants to settle down with Hannah. When she returns he meets her at a bar but she is dragging along another man-a Scotsman, Colin McMurray (Kevin McKidd) to whom she is now engaged.
Of course, Tom is shattered, but he keeps up a brave front. After drinks and small talk, Hannah announces that she wants Tom to be her Maid of Honor, which further humiliates Tom. But he plays along. His basketball buddies think that he should use this opportunity to travel to Scotland and win her back. It's Toms' last hope of finally telling Hannah he loves her and that she should marry him and not the perfect Scotsman who is royalty, handsome, and filthy rich,
To Tom, it's a long shot but well worth taking. How can he compete with this Adonis? But he joins the other Maids of Honor, a funny group of actresses, and travels to Scotland for the wedding. Tom tries to get Hannah alone so he can tell her he loves her, but in the chaos of the wedding preparation, he is left to do his duty as a Maid of Honor.
The scenes in Scotland are elaborately orchestrated and add greatly to the pageantry of the spectacle. Funny, everyone in Colin's family thinks Tom is gay-another humiliation. But there is no mystery where this story is going and director Weiland will sink the hook and give the women in the audience a cheap thrill. But, cliché or not, these films are guaranteed box office winners and Patrick Dempsey is today's male sex idol. It can't lose.
Article Published in the May 2008 Issue of EU Jacksonville
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