Made of Honor

Those who remember the 1997 hit My Best Friend’s Wedding will be familiar with the premise of director Paul Weiland’s 2008 romantic comedy, Made of Honor. In fact, not only are the two movies similar, they’re almost identical, give or take ten years and a sex change. But unfortunately, the movie that made you love Julia Roberts in her long-limbed neurosis isn’t quite as good the second time around. Made of Honor’s Patrick Dempsey (aka McDreamy) in the lead role of Tom lacks the charm and humour needed to make him likeable. He is a rich and apparently jobless player who spends his days traipsing around NYC in search of his next booty call. But when he realizes he’s actually in love with his best friend of ten years, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), it’s already too late — she’s been swept up by a gazillionaire Scotsman who also happens to be everything Tom isn’t: a gentleman. When asked to become Hannah’s maid of honour at her fast-approaching wedding, Tom reluctantly obliges and of course, predictably spends the rest of the movie trying to win her over. While Made of Honor demonstrates a good mix of slapstick, crudeness and cliché cute moments (all necessary evils of the rom-com genre), these all fall short due to an unconvincing cast and an overall flat atmosphere. Only Sydney Pollack as Tom’s father is refreshingly male, compared to his overly feminized fellow actors, and thankfully elicits a few well-earned laughs. The DVD’s special features are disappointing, including only a director’s commentary from Paul Weiland. Although he does offer some insight into the lighting and camera work in a couple of scenes, Weiland seems to have to grope for unnecessary anecdotes throughout most of the commentary, since he admittedly can’t have much else to say for this sorry piece of cinema. It simply goes to show that just because the title of your movie is a pun, it doesn’t automatically make it clever.