Angry Ant

Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) have been best friends for 10 years. Hannah unexpectedly meets Colin (Kevin McKidd), decides he’s the man of her dreams and calls a shotgun wedding asking Tom to be her Maid of Honour. Problem is, Tom has chosen exactly that moment to realise that he’s in love with Hannah and sets out to sabotage the wedding. Ding dong, ding dong! Does that ring some bells? It should, because it’s the plot of My Best Friend’s Wedding only with the genders reversed! Also, My Best Friend’s Wedding was a great movie while Made of Honor revels in its triteness.

Oh, I knew what I was in for, I knew it very well, but I love a good romantic comedy. I’ve even been known to like some of the less celebrated ones (The Wedding Date, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) so odds were decent that I was going to like this. Alas, no.

To begin with, I just can’t buy that two hot people who are both straight and get along superbly can remain JUST friends for 10 years. Then, in the space of 15 movie minutes, he decides that she’s the one for him but she goes off and gets engaged to a man personifying the American idea of a Scotsman (he distills whisky, lives in a castle, plays bagpipes and even hunts his own dinner!)

The rest of the supporting characters are all stock standards and there are a few instances of crass humour (“my, that Scotsman sure has a giant penis, ho, ho!”)  that feel well out of place. But in the end, the main problem is not that the plot and the characters are formulaic, let’s face it, you kind of expect that from a rom com. The problem is that there IS a way to work with those same elements and produce something enjoyable and smart, but clearly people who made this movie didn’t know how.