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Friday
09Jan2009

Movie Review - 'Bride Wars'

DateFriday, January 9, 2009 at 12:01AM
Bride Wars

Starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway
Directed by Gary Winnick
Rated PG

bridewars_galleryposter.jpg And so it begins, another year of romantic comedies, and you'd think that there'd be a learning curve at some point, so that instead of treading the same ground time after time, this genre of movies would learn from previous mistakes. But it doesn't. The Romantic Comedy only learns from what makes money, because that is, indeed, the great deodorant.

And one thing that continues to work for the RomCom is Kate Hudson. Last year when Fool's Gold was released, I lamented over Hudson and Matthew McConaughey settling for the scripts with the best locations.

They're a good on-screen team, and have consistently shown workable chemistry, even though their movies are bad. Why do they have to be lousy? I have no idea. But that's not a question the RomCom concerns itself with, seeing instead that Hudson makes money. For her part, Hudson knows that this is her niche, so why screw up a good thing?

The cycle continues with Bride Wars, which, like a lot of Kate Hudson romantic comedies not named My Best Friend's Girl has a premise and good talent but just no will to succeed. Hudson is paired with Anne Hathaway, and based on what we know about them, we again realize that there's a much better movie for them somewhere. But we can't review that movie until a studio makes it. That leaves us this, a limp affair about two best friends who have always dreamed of a big wedding at the Plaza Hotel in New York, and when both wind up engaged the same week, they pick the same wedding date.

That begins a feud that reminds us of War of the Roses and Death Becomes Her, only without teeth and lasting scars. There is no joy in watching two best friends tear each other's lives apart the way only best friends can because Bride Wars doesn't want to go that far. It wants you to see that it could go that far, however. Well, that's not good enough, and it leaves the movie completely half-baked.

You can't really fault the performances of Hudson or Hathaway. There's not enough there to evaluate. They're incomplete characters, so they get incomplete grades. But you can tell they were friends because they act chummy and then you can tell they're enemies because they act like Jerry Springer guests.

Part of the problem with Bride Wars is the confinements of the genre: There's really nothing romantic about this movie at all, but because it has to be marketed a certain way, Bride Wars can't be as ugly as it really is under all its make-up. Too bad. To see Hudson and Hathaway really let loose might have been fun.

Another part of the problem is that, even for a comedy, it's so completely implausible that you can't stop thinking about the simple way to resolve it. In fact, you don't even need to think about it since Hudson's fiance asks straight up why she and Hathaway don't just have a dual wedding. After all, they're best friends, they've shared everything to this point, and they have the same dream wedding. Why not pool resources and make it truly memorable?

It makes perfect sense, and that, you see, is the lesson romantic comedies never learn.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

Go see 'The Reader' instead, Kate Winslet crushes!!!!!

Friday, January 9, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterlara Petersen

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