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| Dempsey takes on 'Made of Honor’ duties, minus the dress | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Craig Outhier, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| April 30, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Yeah, it’s a bad pun. Nonsensical, even. But that doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about the movie itself, right? Look at “Good Will Hunting” — horrendous pun, Oscar-winning screenplay. Sadly, in the case of “Made of Honor,” the lame-brained label accurately reflects the product within. In a near-plagiaristic, gender-flipped version of Julia Roberts’ matrimonial saboteur in “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” Dempsey plays Tom, a rich Manhattan playboy whose no-strings attitude toward sex is manifested in a series of insipid “rules”: Never sleep with the same woman on back-to-back nights, always wait at least two days before calling, etc. In any recognizable human universe, Tom would be insufferable as hell, but screenwriters Adam Sztykiel and Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont blindly deploy him like the irresistibly devilish charmer he isn’t. He’s more like a lazy amalgam of deodorant-commercial manhood — the kind of guy who can’t say the word “love” and only reveals his true feelings while playing pickup hoops with his pals. He’s a stereotype; the male equivalent of the purse-dog ditz. The thing, theoretically, that allows us to suffer this oversexed fool is his unique and special friendship with Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), a sassy grown-up tomboy whom he tried and failed to woo in college. Tom is content with Hannah’s nonsexual companionship and their ritualized weekends of antiquing and breakfasting until she meets Colin (Kevin McKidd from “Rome”), a hale-and-hearty Scottish blue blood who immediately inflames Tom’s competitive instincts and makes him realize, finally, that Hannah is the girl for him. The rest is a muddled, half-humored mixture of role-reversal and romantic espionage, as Tom faithfully executes his duties as Hannah’s maid of honor (gift baskets on poker night — so cute!) while trying to scuttle her betrothal. Yes, it’s conniving and cowardly, but not terribly edgy — even when journeyman director Paul Weiland (“City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold”) turns to Colin’s equine endowments to make Tom feel even more inadequate. Like all bad romantic comedies, “Made of Honor” takes a wild stab at psycho-romantic insight; in this case, that means making Hannah’s matrimonial future contingent on an entirely trivial plot point involving what appears to be chocolate devil’s food. And that just takes the cake. Horrendous pun intended. 'Made of Honor’ Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd Behind the scenes: Director Paul Weiland, from a script by Adam Sztykiel and Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont Rated: PG-13 (sexual content and profanity), 101 minutes — Grade: D Contact Craig Outhier by email, or phone (480) 898-5683 |
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