Jess Paine
BartoMade of Honour: and other left-overs
May 8th 2008 03:43
Made of Honour is Frankenstein’s romcom – it may walk and talk, but you can’t help but stare at the stitching marks. So many brilliant and mediocre films have been born into this genre’s cannon that writers everywhere must surely be banging their heads against walls in the fight to come up with an original idea. But in most cases, as in this one, it is apparent they have given up before the muse descended upon them (or not even tried at all).
I am an unashamed lover of the romcom, but even this uneven offering tried my patience. Patrick Dempsey plays uber bachelor Tom, whose only real commitment is to his friendship with Michelle Monaghan’s Hannah. Only when Hannah finds herself a strapping Scotsman and gets engaged does Tom wake up and smell the cliché. He’s in love with her. Have I ruined the twist? What follows are his varied attempts to win her, a trip to Scotland, a tree throwing competition, and then (bizarrely) an overt affection for dogs becomes a major plot point… and suddenly you’re walking out of the cinema.
If you want a masterpiece run now. If you want a mildly unconventional ending go watch My Best Friend's Wedding... there maybe something familiar about that.
A genuine highlight for me was the introduction of the acronym MOH. Also, Monoghan is charisma on a stick despite her underwritten role, and the early use of some crude slapstick humour which is quickly abandoned. There is some choice characterization from Busy Phillips as an enraged fellow bridesmaid and Kevin Sussman as the deeply odd and suitably named Tiny Shorts Guy. These wacky additions are useful, structural anomalies which offer momentary glimpes of unpredictablity. Yet all the while they’re stock characters. Slutty best friend. Odd Geek.
Dempsey is passable, attractive, but nothing more. His character is idiotic.
There will be chuckles, but you’ll walk out and won’t remember precisely why. If nothing else this is one of those movies that shamelessly returns the time-honoured tradition of line prediction. In the final 10 minutes if you haven’t picked the second half of at least a dozen sentences you aren’t even trying. Also, it’s pretty and shiny and happy, which is really the point of these movies anyway. It certainly isn’t anything else.
I am an unashamed lover of the romcom, but even this uneven offering tried my patience. Patrick Dempsey plays uber bachelor Tom, whose only real commitment is to his friendship with Michelle Monaghan’s Hannah. Only when Hannah finds herself a strapping Scotsman and gets engaged does Tom wake up and smell the cliché. He’s in love with her. Have I ruined the twist? What follows are his varied attempts to win her, a trip to Scotland, a tree throwing competition, and then (bizarrely) an overt affection for dogs becomes a major plot point… and suddenly you’re walking out of the cinema.
If you want a masterpiece run now. If you want a mildly unconventional ending go watch My Best Friend's Wedding... there maybe something familiar about that.
A genuine highlight for me was the introduction of the acronym MOH. Also, Monoghan is charisma on a stick despite her underwritten role, and the early use of some crude slapstick humour which is quickly abandoned. There is some choice characterization from Busy Phillips as an enraged fellow bridesmaid and Kevin Sussman as the deeply odd and suitably named Tiny Shorts Guy. These wacky additions are useful, structural anomalies which offer momentary glimpes of unpredictablity. Yet all the while they’re stock characters. Slutty best friend. Odd Geek.
Dempsey is passable, attractive, but nothing more. His character is idiotic.
There will be chuckles, but you’ll walk out and won’t remember precisely why. If nothing else this is one of those movies that shamelessly returns the time-honoured tradition of line prediction. In the final 10 minutes if you haven’t picked the second half of at least a dozen sentences you aren’t even trying. Also, it’s pretty and shiny and happy, which is really the point of these movies anyway. It certainly isn’t anything else.
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