Friday, May 02, 2008

MADE OF HONOR - a rom-com as weak as the alleged pun in the title

Do you want to know why I didn't want you to be a bridesmaid at my wedding? Because there wasn't enough tangerine chiffon in the whole state of Illinois to make your dress.MADE OF HONOR is a desperately weak romantic comedy vehicle for TV star Patrick Dempsey. We know he can be charming and sweet because we've seen him in ENCHANTED. We also know that his lead actress, Michelle Monaghan, can be endearing and like-able because we've seen her in KISS KISS BANG BANG, not to mention as about the only good thing in the god-awful Ben Stiller project THE HEARTBREAK KID. We also know that the movie's director, Paul Weiland, can make emotionally engaging films rooted in authentic history, as he did with last year's SIXTY SIX.

So what went wrong with MADE OF HONOR? The script. Debutant writer Adam Stzykiel has created a collage of rom-com plot points - all of them implausible and none of them grounded in anything so obvious as character development. (Promiscuous, superficial boy realises he is love with his sweet best friend, but it's too late! She has fallen in love with a Scot (Kevin McKidd of ROME fame). So wanker best friend sets about trying to ruin his best friend's happiness so he can get his rocks off. Cue lots of picturesque Scottish scenery and lots of lazy Scottish jokes.)

The whole thing has the artificial, unwholesome, aeriated feel of aerosol can whipped cream and should have been punished for eternity in straight to video hell.

MADE OF HONOR is on release in Egypt, Australia, Estonia, Russia, South Africa, Iceland, the UK and the USA. It opens later in May in Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Spain. It opens in June in Argentina, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and France. It opens in Japan on July 12th, in Turkey on August 1st, and in Taiwan on August 7th.

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