Archives'Made of Honor' Misses the MarkBy Marcos Bernal-SalasFriday, May 2, 2008Is Patrick Dempsey the new Julia Roberts? It might seem so, since the latest romcom – short for romantic comedy – looks like something that came out of the best of Roberts’ comedy film collections. ‘Made of Honor’ is Hollywood’s latest attempt to make the chick flick more appealing to a wider audience; the testosterone half of the audience that is. What was director Paul Weiland thinking when he signed on to do this film? Maybe he thought to bring some British charm onto American screens or that this could’ve been another ‘Notting Hill’ type of hit. ‘Made of Honor’ has a very straight forward storyline. Tom (Dempsey) has been a long time friend of Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). Through the years, since college, they have become the strongest friends and confidants there is; at least the audience is led to assume that. There has never been any sexual tension between them and Hannah has become the constant in Tom’s delightful bachelor lifestyle. Of course, throw a curve ball at Tom when she goes in a six-week trip to Scotland and falls in love of a man that is ten times better than him. The subplot follows through the never ending jokes and comparison between Tom and Hannah’s husband to be from the locker room to the financial status; the film has them all. But the icing on the cake here is the recycled story that everyone has seen before where one of the two people falls in love of the other too late in the game. In this case, once the presence of marriage is at the end zone. Can anyone say ’My Best Friend’s Wedding’ or ‘Runaway Bride’? From then on the writers would like the audience to accept that a straight, charismatic, American alpha-male will entertain the idea of being his best female friend’s maid of honor. That is also wrapped with the idea that Tom’s friends encourage him to accept it and that it might the best way to boycott the wedding and tell Hannah about his love. If that sounds a bit of stretch is because it is. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any sense of realism to what ‘Made of Honor’ is trying to accomplish. Even with its play on words I don’t think there’s anything honorable of a man who suddenly pursues what he thinks is true love and compromising someone’s happiness. It’s hard to believe on Tom’s redemptions even if they are for the sake of true love. Why? Because that doesn’t happen in the real world no matter what anyone might argue. If the argue here is that man will act like fools for love – which is a subject that many films have touched on before – then please have a smart storyline and deeper sense of humor. Blending different ideas or formulas onto one script that worked before do not necessarily mean it will work again. In the case of ‘Made of Honor’, it is a major tragedy to see a chick flick trying to be something else and not hitting the mark. A cute movie yes – using the term loosely here – but not something that anyone should run to see at the movie theaters this weekend.  
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