Made of Honor (2008)
Directed by Paul Weiland
Written by Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont
Starring Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Kathleen Quinlan, Sidney Pollack
Release Date May 2nd, 2008
Published May 2nd, 2008
Forget about An Inconvenient Truth or Leonardo DiCaprio's recent enviro-doc The 11th Hour or any nature movie you've ever seen. The most environmentally conscious film ever is without a doubt the new romantic comedy Made of Honor, the first movie ever made entirely of recycled materials. Recycled script, recycled characters, recycled plot, recycled everything. There is in fact next to nothing in Made of Honor that isn't recycled from some other romantic comedy right down to the stock scenes of a chase to the church and a character who gets punched in the nose at a wedding.
Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey stars in Made of Honor as Tom, an amoral ladies man who lives to sleep with a different woman every night. He has the perfect set up, he sleeps with random babes but has his best friend Hannah to provide him with the kind of female companionship he truly desires. Unfortunately, Hannah has a trip to Scotland that disrupts Tom's set schedule. With Hannah out of the country and mostly out of touch Tom realizes that his life stinks without her. He decides that he loves her and will tell her when she returns. However, Hannah doesn't return alone.
While in Scotland she fell for a hunky Scot named Colin (Kevin McKidd) and accepted his proposal. On a whim, she is getting married and she wants Tom to be her Mate of Honor. If you can't predict what happens from there then you have likely never seen a romantic comedy before. From the chase to the church to someone getting punched out at the wedding, Made of Honor recycles every imaginable rom-com cliché. The movie, directed by Paul Weiland even tosses in some questionable low brow humor for good measure.
Made of Honor is so astonishingly clichéd and predictable that had it included an all cast sing along to a well known pop song it would tip completely over into an ironic rom com parody and I could recommend it. As it is, Made of Honor is an earnest attempt at romantic comedy that fails on familiarity alone. On most every level the film is... competent. Patrick Dempsey is appealing. Michelle Monaghan is love and everything from the supporting cast to the direction is competently crafted. The problem is we've seen it all before. The script from three different writers recycles every cliche in the book and somehow expects us to simply accept it.
No acceptance here, Made of Honor stinks like the compost of dozens of similar romantic comedies. No matter the appealing elements we've seen it all before and thus there is no reason to see Made of Honor.
P.S
As for the bizarre title "Made of Honor". Now having seen the movie, I still can't make sense of it. Tom is the Maid of Honor but why the title goes with 'Made' is a complete mystery.
