“Made of Honor” (2008)

Made of Honor

Grade: C

Made of Honor, a clichéd, trite 2008 rom-com starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, is what would happen if the Hallmark channel was given a $40 million budget and a 100-minute runtime.

Directing:

British director Paul Weiland scores some easy points with pretty shots of the Manhattan skyline and the Scottish Highlands, but the beautiful imagery is unfortunately wasted — and maybe a bit out of place, if I’m being honest — in a rom-com as dumb as this. You can tell from the basketball scenes (yes, basketball scenes) that Weiland’s a charlatan.

Acting:

Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan are both charming actors with palpable chemistry between them, but the rest of the supporting cast — other than a very vulgar Sydney Pollack as Dempsey’s father — is third-rate at best. There might as well just be two people in the entire movie.

Writing:

While not altogether boring, the storyline (written by Adam Sztykiel) seems like it was cobbled together in less than 30 minutes (and the pun-for-no-reason title in less than 30 milliseconds), with predictable tropes (lifelong bachelor falls in love with his girl best friend) and contrived solutions (a horse…he literally rides a horse to crash the wedding on time) that lack all subtlety and grace. Not to mention a sense of humor limited to cheap slapstick and “haha Scottish people funny.”

Music:

There are some good songs in Made of Honor that are a nostalgic time capsule of pop rock hits from the 2000s, including tunes by Sara Bareilles, Kanye West, Oasis and Dashboard Confessional, but the music selections add very little substance overall.

Ending (SPOILERS):

McDreamy hops on a random horse, cartoon crashes through the church doors (did the filmmakers really just copy from Shrek?), objects to the wedding, steals away his true love from those crazy Scots and lives happily ever after. Even Season 4 of Grey’s Anatomy would’ve come up with something better than that. (Okay, maybe not.)

“Said by a pussy and used by pussies ever since.” – Thomas Sr.

Why Made of Honor gets a C

Forgettable half-assed rom-com that was probably easy to make, like Marshall’s Valentine’s Day (2010) and Tucker’s Leap Year (also 2010).

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