Title: Made of Honor; Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Sidney Pollack; Director: Paul Weiland; Producers: Neil M. Moritz; Screenwriters: Adam Sztykiel, Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont; Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams; Editor: Richard Marks; Genre: Romance/ Comedy;
Cinematography: Tony Pierce-Roberts; Distributor: Columbia Pictures; Location: New York , USA and Scotland; Running Time: 91 min ;
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
For the last ten years after college, Tom Bailey (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) have become best friends. They enjoy each other’s company, laugh at the same jokes, tell each one choice personal experiences. This platonic friendship has endured in spite of their divergent interests and lifestyles. Tom, the handsome and wealthy inventor of the collar for take-out coffee cups, is an inveterate womanizer who attracts and beds a different girl every night (and never the same girl for two successive nights according to his rules), while Hannah is an art restorer who observes all these in bemusement but commenting and is the only good-looking girl in New York he hasn’t slept with. Both seem content with the way things are until Hannah goes to Scotland for six weeks on a business trip. Tom misses Hannah and realizes he is in love with her; he plans to tell her when she returns. But when she does, she brings along Colin (Kevin McKidd), a rugged man, a natural athlete who owns the biggest distillery in Scotland and is of royal lineage. They announce they’re engaged to be married and Hannah, unsuspecting of Tom’s real feelings, asks Tom to be her maid of honor. Tom accepts the invitation and accompanies Hannah to Scotland with the hope that he can think of something to prevent the wedding from pushing through.
It’s true that the good looks and personality of lead actors are a big come-on for the movies and the movie producers are banking on Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan to do that for Made of Honor but regretfully, as this movie shows, these are not enough. The picture calls to mind the well remembered My Bestfriend’s Wedding because of the similarity in the plot. However, Made of Honor is a bit of a let down because the very predictable plot is also underdeveloped, and so are the characters. There is not much that the viewers can savor between the beginning and the expected ending. Even the cliché of a dashing horseback rescue is not that exciting. The implausible situation is forced or thrust into your face right from the start, for how can a man be a maid of honor? Attempts at humor are crude like Tom’s father negotiating a pre-nuptial agreement with his future 6th (or 7th?) wife as to the number of times she should have sex with him in a week. The acting of the leads is adequate but there is really not much they can do. There is also some chemistry between them so they are able to sustain a light, cheerful mood. Some Scottish wedding traditions presented add to the happy ambience.
A romantic comedy like Made of Honor is meant to be light and entertaining and not to be taken seriously. So at times, negative values are overlooked or accepted due to the fact that they are presented in the guise of jokes or attempts at humor. Such is the matter-of-fact depiction of certain sex practices like the promiscuity of Patrick Dempsey’s character Tom Bailey and the ease of divorce and repeated marriages of Tom’s father. These practices are shown as an accepted way of life in this movie and glossed over by the other characters who are amused by them. These attitudes and practices are contrary to Christian as well as Filipino traditional values. Young people who see this movie should be carefully guided by parents/guardians as ideas these can subtly and insidiously influence the young viewers’ thinking and behavior.
