Made of Honor Review

Overall 3.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

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Been There Done That, But Still Fun

Movie Reviewer, A Big Giant Sap, a storyteller

Pros

Patrick Dempsey, Sydney Pollack, Beautiful scenes of Scotland

Cons

Nothing new in this script

MAY

2008

In a popular theme of romantic comedies, Made of Honor asks the question if "there's more to life than just sleeping around." Not only does it ask this prevailing question, but it also harkens back to a theme seen very similarly in My Best Friend's Wedding and more than a few Friends episodes. Nevertheless it's still an entertaining film, despite that been there/done that thing it has going on.

Tom and Hannah (Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan) meet by accident while students at Cornell University on Halloween 1998. She's the type of girl who is sleeping in her bed while everyone else is in costume at a party, and he's the type to don a Bill Clinton mask and try to bed all the girls dressed as Monica Lewinsky. Since she doesn't fall immediately to his charm, he rather enjoys the challenge.

Skipping forward ten years, Tom and Hannah have become the best of friends. They spend every Sunday together sharing non-fried Chinese food, visiting antique shops, and guessing what each other will order at the bakery, then sharing it. He's still bedding as many women as he can, with "rules" of his own design, such as no back-to-back dates, and she's still looking for the man of her dreams. Hannah mentions to Tom one Sunday that she is heading to Scotland on business for six weeks, and he's excited for her, encouraging her to go, but it's clear she was hoping he'd beg her to stay, declaring his never-ending love for her.

Tom doesn't exactly have the best role models for neverending love. His father doesn't bed a different girl every night, but is on his sixth wedding to a girl who is in it obviously for the cash, as they bargain the prenup before entering the ceremony, with the sticky point being how many times a week they'll have sex and how many times a month she'll give him sexual favors. This dissolves into some funny irony with Gold Digger being played at their reception.

Just like when Ross went to China on Friends, and Rachel decided she loved him, but as she showed up to tell him this at the airport and found that Ross hadn't come back alone, he had Julie, his new perfect girlfriend with him, the same thing happens here. Hannah comes back from Scotland with a fiance that can't seem to do anything wrong. She asks Tom to be her maid of honor, as he's her best friend, and he complies, but only so that he can work on convincing her that he's the guy she should be marrying.

This is where it falls in to being like My Best Friend's Wedding, as we watch everyone go through all the planning behind the wedding, while Julia Roberts is trying to convince Dermot Mulroney she's the perfect girl for him, and not Cameron Diaz. In Made of Honor, Tom is trying to experience deeper relationships with the girls he dates, but going through the antique shops, they ask him why he would want to "look at things that are old" and they don't understand the bakery guessing game.

Made of Honor is still a cute movie, though. Patrick Dempsey is always good, although in the scenes with him from 1998, they should have made him look like the roles he was playing then, as throwing the longer haired wig on him just didn't seem to cut it. The rest of the cast is as you would expect, with no real stand out performances other than that from "Tiny Shorts Guy." He kind of steals the show. I won't spoil it by telling you if it ends like Ross and Rachel or ends like My Best Friend's Wedding. You'll have to see it for yourself.

Last edited on May 11, 2008