Movie Review: Made of Honor

Here's the description of the movie from Amazon.com: "For Tom (Patrick Dempsey), life is good: he's sexy, successful, has great luck with the ladies, and knows he can always rely on Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), his delightful best friend and the one constant in his life. It's the perfect setup until Hannah goes overseas to Scotland on a six-week business trip... and Tom is stunned to realize how empty his life is without her. He resolves that when she gets back, he'll ask Hannah to marry him -- but is floored when he learns that she has become engaged to a handsome and wealthy Scotsman and plans to move overseas. When Hannah asks Tom to be her "maid" of honor, he reluctantly agrees to fill the role... but only so he can attempt to woo Hannah and stop the wedding before it's too late."

My Review:

I am sorry to say that there were few redeeming qualities to this film--the bad far outweighed the good, in my opinion. While the idea of a male Maid of Honor, who's best friends with the bride but then realizes he loves her, is a good premise for a romance story, I didn't think it was played out well at all.

For starters, this movie is rated PG-13, and with good reason. The promiscuous behavior of Tom at the beginning of the movie is horrible, and as his friend it was surprising to see Hannah treat it so lightly. It was an accepted fact that he was a philanderer. The crude sexual content throughout the movie was anything but charming, and it most certainly detracted from any enjoyment to be found in the storyline.

While the movie is geared to have the viewers cheer for Tom, it was hard not to cheer for the Scottish man Hannah planned to marry. As far as I could tell, he was honorable and he loved her. There was a crude scene that kind of marred my thoughts about him, but it really wasn't his fault. There was one point where I was disappointed in something he did, but for the most part I just saw his "problem" as being too traditional.

So while I think it's great to be in love with someone who is your best friend, it's hard not to question Tom's motives. Tom took the advice of his questionable male friends rather often, and I can't help but wonder how much of his pursuit was based off of selfishness rather than true, sacrificial love.

Overall, this is not a movie I would recommend. The film disregards morality, and in my opinion it is shallow and unrealistic. There was not much that I enjoyed about it, and it didn't even leave me with a happy-ending feeling, which good "chick flicks" ought to do. If you're looking for a clean, romantic movie with Patrick Dempsey in it, I would go with Enchanted and bypass this one.