NOTE: You can also check out our audio review of Made of Honor right here.
About midway through this film I was ready to give Made of Honor a pass. Let’s face it, watch the trailers, read the plotline or get a hint and you know what’s going to happen here. People don’t watch romantic-comedies because they are ground-breaking cinematic affairs. We go to watch them for breezy escapism and an occasional laugh. Every now and again one hits home and you have a hit, most often times they are run-of-the-mill and then you have your stinkers. Unfortunately, Made of Honor fell out of run-of-the-mill and ended up a stinker.
Quick plot… Patrick Dempsey is Michelle Monaghan’s best friend, he falls in love with her, she goes to Scotland for six months and comes back engaged. Boom. “Be my maid of honor.” You’ve got a conundrum.
Traditional rom-com plot devices go into effect. Miscommunication, unfinished sentences, occasional sexual puns and a whole lotta nonsense. For the first hour it works. However, you know the miscommunication is going to arrive. The moment where someone is caught doing something and it is blown out of context, but the chance to explain is never even allowed to happen. This is typical of rom-coms. We accept it and move on. Too bad Made of Honor doesn’t have just one miscommunication, or even two… nope, this bad boy has three miscommunications right in a row and you hate yourself for it.
Romantic comedies should never give people the opportunity to get frustrated with the situations being portrayed on screen. We already know there is going to be that moment, just don’t let us remember it.
Made of Honor proves Patrick Dempsey is simply man meat for the female audience and Michelle Monaghan is a very cute actress with untapped talent (an inkling on display here). Too bad this movie doesn’t just wash over you as mediocre rom-coms should. Instead it sits around and lingers until it is stale and you want to just throw it out.
