Customer Reviews

Made of Honor (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

And a rainy day. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the film.

Tom (Dempsey) and Hannah (Monaghan) met at a Cornell costume bash 10 years before when a drunken Tom, dressed as President Clinton, stumbled into a dorm room and a girl's bed thinking he'd found "Monica". Turned out he'd gotten the wrong girl. "Monica" was Hannah's inebriated roomie.

They were friends from that moment, sharing Sundays, confidences, and desserts. Tom didn't know how much they shared til Hannah headed for Scotland and stayed gone six weeks. He was ready to propose when she came back, but she returned with a man, Colin (McKidd).

Hannah and Colin were going to be wed in Scotland in two weeks and Hannah couldn't think of anyone she wanted to be her Made of Honor more than her longtime best friend. Tom reluctantly accepted, secretly agreeing to become the best maid of honor and wreck the wedding.

What happens had me laughing until tears streamed down my face. I needed the break and "Made" defintely offered it. Tom hosting the wedding shower was a screamer--particularly when the jealous female friend who wanted to be the "MOH" set him up with a sex toy salesperson and Hannah's sweet Grandma ended up with a necklace of 'thunderbeads.' Then, of course, there was the Highland Games with Tom and Colin tacitly competing for Hannah's hand, Tom dressed in a mini kilt. (Nope, he wasn't dressed regimental--darn!)

Director Sydney Pollack showed up in a rare movie role as Tom's oft-wed Dad. The prenup agreement with Wife 5 (or was it 6, Dad can't remember) had me roaring. The car with the intended bride had to literally go around the block at the church to iron out last-minute details.

Plus, the scenery from Scotland was amazing. I recognized some places I'd been a few years before--and definitely remembered the flock of Hieland Coos stopping traffic on mainstreet.

The music was good, a mix of contemporary plus some old Scottish tunes. I notice there's no soundtrack available. I hope there will be one. It was a pretty decent collection.

The film's what you'd expect and yet, it's still entertaining. And, sometimes you just need something that's a gimme when it's a rainy day and a cheap laugh will lift a few clouds.

Rebecca Kyle, May 2008

In college, Tom (Patrick Dempsey) was a lady's man. He slept with anyone who will have him. Sneaking into a room one night, he accidentally meets Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). Despite their less then great meeting, the two hit if off and become friends.

Flash forward 10 years, and little has changed. Tom spends every night with a different woman. And he spends all day hanging out with Hannah, who is now working for a museum. The two are close friends, but that is all.

Until one day when Hannah leaves on a six week trip to Scotland. It doesn't take Tom long to realize that he truly loves Hannah. In fact, the separation is killing him. He intends to act on his new found feelings as soon as she gets back.

But when Hannah returns, it is with Colin (Kevin McKidd) in tow. The two met in Scotland and are engaged. To further add to Tom's misery, Hannah asks him to be her maid of honor. Tom is reluctant, but decides he can break the wedding apart better from the inside. But with the ceremony only two weeks again, can Tom make Hannah fall for him?

So let's get the obvious out of the way first, the story is predictable. So, the movie is going to rise of fall based on how well everything else comes off.

And it comes off reasonably well. Hannah is likable from the start. I admit it took me a little while to warm up to Tom since I'm not a fan of cads. But as the movie progressed, I found it easy to root for him. In fact, I cared about the characters enough to get invested in the outcome.

And the story is funny. There are quite a few great moments that had me laughing, especially Tom's friends helping him learn how to be a maid of honor.

This movie is just an escapist romantic comedy. But that's all it wanted to be in the first place. If you keep that in mind going into it, you'll have a good time.

Don't you just hate it when the woman you secretly love gets engaged with another man? Tom (Patrick Dempsey) certainly does; he's been best friends with Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) ever since college, but only when another man proposes does Tom finally admit that he loves her. Now all he has to do is win her back. The idea behind "Made of Honor" is certainly classic as far as romantic comedies are concerned, which I guess is why the filmmakers stirred things up by making Dempsey's character the Maid of Honor. Then again, "stirred things up" might be too strong a term here; this movie is about as predictable and contrived as romantic comedies get, offering absolutely nothing new ... except, of course, for that whole male Maid of Honor thing. That, and a scene in which Hannah's grandmother wears a string of glow-in-the-dark sex beads, thinking it's a regular necklace. You certainly don't see that everyday.

The truth is that "Made of Honor" is no better and no worse than you expect it to be--you want a romantic comedy, you've got a romantic comedy. But if you want something more, something with greater depth of character and a few less one-liners, I'm afraid you'll have to keep looking. I won't go so far as to say that this movie is bad, but it definitely doesn't want to be anything other than Hollywood fluff with one or two over the top gags. I've repeatedly observed that romantic comedies never represent reality, but merely the illusion of happily ever after, and rest assured that "Made of Honor" is no exception to the rule. The problems with this film don't stem from an unrealistic plot filled with unrealistic characters; they stem from how ineffectively these unrealistic elements are used. You watch this film waiting for something new to surprise you, only to leave feeling as if you've been there and done that.

Still, there are worse films out there. I did smile more than once at the onscreen chemistry between Dempsey and Monaghan, chemistry so prominent that it seems unlikely their characters would act on their feelings so late in the relationship. Ten years ago, while still in college, Tom and Hannah met while he was dating her roommate. After a Halloween party, he snuck into Hannah's room wearing a Bill Clinton mask, believing her roommate was already there and waiting. Instead, he finds Hannah, who immediately sprays perfume into his eyes because she thinks he's an attacker. After flushing his eyes out in a water fountain, they strike up a conversation; Tom apparently believes that honesty is the best policy, especially for men who sleep around as much as he does. Hannah seems to find him charming, but she boldly asserts that she never sleeps with anyone like him.

In present day, Tom is the exact same womanizer he's always been. He's learned from the best; his father (Sidney Pollack) marries for the sixth time within the first thirty minutes of the film. Tom now follows a strict set of rules: never take any one woman on two consecutive dates, and wait at least twenty-four hours before calling someone new, because you'd seem desperate otherwise. How he maintains this lifestyle, I have no idea; what he does for a living is never alluded to, but his spacious Manhattan apartment hints at a decent salary. Be that as it may, he and Hannah--now an art historian--have been the best of friends ever since that fateful Halloween night. When she's called away to Scotland for six weeks, he begins to realize the affect she's had on his life; after all, the two have been virtually inseparable for ten years. Maybe he is in love with her. Maybe there's more to life than just sleeping with women (a concept his basketball buddies don't seem to understand, naturally).

Unfortunately, Tom gets the surprise of his life when Hannah returns to New York with her Scottish fiancé, Colin (Kevin McKidd), who's both a Duke and an owner of his family's whiskey distillery. Since Hannah knows that she would be Tom's Best Man at his wedding, she thinks it's fitting that he be her Maid of Honor. He begrudgingly takes on the role, believing he can somehow make her see that he's the right man, not Colin. As Tom plunges into the blatantly feminine world of wedding coordination and shower planning, he grapples with buried feelings, bad advice, and the wrath of Hannah's resentful cousin, Melissa (Busy Philipps).

The last twenty minutes of the story proper takes place in Scotland, where Hannah plans to live after the wedding. Naturally, this is when the romantic feelings between her and Tom finally begin to surface, and this, of course, creates more tension for that climactic moment when Tom rides a horse to the church and flies through the entrance. This is but one of many moments that sound funnier than they actually are. One of the film's most unnecessary side characters is a desperate nerd that tries to play basketball with Tom and his friends: How many times do they have to tell him no before he gets the idea? There's also a moment early on when Hannah is restoring a painting of a nude male; the movements of her head give the impression that she's giving the figure oral sex. The moment in and of itself is amusing, but it certainly doesn't work within the context of the story. But the biggest problem of "Made of Honor" is much more basic than a few inappropriate laughs--its formula is overused, a condition Dr. McDreamy can't even treat.

I don't have this filmmaker's cookbook handy, but I can pretty much assume the ingredients they used for this film.

1 Patrick Dempsey
1 Wedding Planner Script
1 My Best Friend's Wedding Script
1 Notting Hill Script
1 Very Pleasant Actress (Michelle Monaghan)

The result is a cliched mess. We've all seen this plot before. A thousand times before, to be honest. Of course, in those instances, the male lead was at least charming. That's not the case here, as Patrick Dempsey is about as likable as a thousand volts to the groin, even more annoying than his McDreamy persona from Grey's Anatomy.

The movie's only saving grace is the lovely Ms. Monaghan. She's every bit as agreeable here as she was in The Heartbreak Kid. The only difference is, in Heartbreak Kid, she had a skilled comedic actor to play off of. She and Dempsey have as much chemistry as two sweat socks. Monaghan tries her best, but she can't seem to muster up a reason for us to pull for her pairing with Dempsey's character.

I hope she finds a film project more beneficial to her talents... and that Patrick Dempsey stays away from the big screen. Far, far away.

Though there is some witty humor, this movie is downright terrible. It is so predictable that it is unrealistic and choppy. Dempsy's character comes off as a total DB. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE MOVIE!!!!!!!

As romantic comedies go, this is one of the more amusing that I have seen over the past year. Patrick Dempsey proves that he can handle a very different character to "McDreamy" (Doctor Jonathan Shepherd from "Gray's Anatomy")and Michelle Monahan is beautiful and charming as the heroine.

The film begins with a student party, during which Tom, (Dempsey) a senior year student who has seduced half the female students at the University, meets a girl called Hannah in the most embarrassing circumstances imaginable when he accidentally gets into the wrong bed. Despite this dreadful introduction, they become best friends, in a completely platonic way.

The story resumes ten years later, in New York. Although he has remained a serial womaniser who is successful in charming every other girl he takes a fancy to into bed, for relationships which are about sex and nothing else, Tom's friendship with Hannah has become part of the bedrock of both their lives but appears to have remained entirely platonic.

The first hint that the relationship between Tom and Hannah might not be quite as platonic as they both think comes when he persuades her to come with him to his father's sixth wedding. Tom Senior, a wealthy man in his sixties, is marrying a beautiful girl of 25 (e.g. about five years younger than his son.) During a series of silly events which I won't describe to avoid spoiling the story, the viewer realises that both friends mean more to each other then they are prepared to admit even to themselves.

Then Hannah has to go to Scotland for six weeks on business, and while there she is swept off her feet by Colin (Kevin McKidd), handsome heir to a family of dour highland aristocrats who are even richer than Tom's father. Returning to New York with Colin, Hannah tells Tom that she is getting married to Colin in a fortnight, in Scotland. And as he is her best friend, she wants him to be her "maid of honour".

This comes just as Tom has finally realised that he is in love with Hannah, and presents him with a dilemma: does he support his best friend in her choice of life partner, or use the position to try to persuade her to marry him instead?

Most people will find the shenanigans which follow to be highly amusing.

One warning - the film takes the mickey out of every cliche about Scotland from an American perspective in a way which patriotic Scots - and indeed, Scots-Americans and residents of parts of the UK other than Scotland - may find irritating.

If you are not too put off by this, and by one or two highly predictable stock Hollywood RomCom chiches, you will probably enjoy "Made of Honour" although it might not have much repeat entertainment value. Perhaps a film to rent, and watch once, rather than one to buy.

I can't believe all the low ratings for this movie! I liked it...it's not super original and it's very predictable but hey, it's a date movie. There's some funny moments and yes, it's a basic rehash of "My Best Friend's Wedding" but I think "Made of Honor" is better. I didn't really like "My Best Friend's Wedding" mainly because I didn't really like Julia Robert's character and there really wasn't any chemistry between her and her male co-star. I am a Dempsey fan (loved him in "Enchanted"...) and I thought Patrick Dempsey was very charming in "Made of Honor." I think the chemistry between him and Michelle Monaghan was great. It's a cute movie.

Made of Honor is basically a redo of the "My Best Friend's Wedding" concept. A man and a woman are best friends, then one of them gets engaged, and the other one realizes they love the person getting married. Chaos ensues as the one tries to disrupt the wedding of the other.

The difference between these two movies is that while "Best Friend's Wedding" was funny, "Made of Honor" is just juvenile. There were actually parts where I felt sorry for Patrick Dempsey. But it's not totally unwatchable, so it might be worth a rental.

Hannah and Tom are friends forever and when Hannah finds love and gets engaged to (Colin) she chooses her best friend Tom to be her Maid of Honor, yes a guy. He does everything he can to be the best maid of honor for his best friend until he reality sinks in and discovers what is wrong with the picture, then decided to bust up the marriage. Can their friendship hold together even when love is concerned? Can friendship turn into love and last forever? I rate this a 4 for the great friendship this pair have in the movie and also starring my favorite actor Patrick Dempsey. 2 thumbs up

It would be easy to write a scathing review of "Made of Honor," but why bother? True, the film is horribly clichéd and unimaginative, but it is a harmless bit of fun. Tom and Hannah are pushing 30. They have known each other since their college days, when Tom, wearing a Bill Clinton mask at a Halloween party, mistakenly found himself in Hannah's dorm room, mistakenly thinking her to be a pliant "Monica." Over the years, the studly Tom has had countless casual relationships, but spends every Sunday with Hannah. The two are great and close friends, but not romantic. But when Tom learn that Hannah has found the perfect guy -- a rich and handsome Scottish lad named Colin, he panics. When Hannah makes him her "Maid" of Honor, he connives to use his access to the bride to try to win her.

The film has the makings of a screwball comedy, but doesn't really try to. There are a few fat jokes and gay jokes and Nellie jokes, but all are throwaway laughs. Patrick Dempsey is cute and heartsick as the randy Tom. Michelle Monaghan does fine as the smart Hannah, tired of waiting for marriage. The plot and the ending are predictable and unchallenging, including the standard lovers quarrel and messed-up wedding. A fine film if you really need to get your mind off your troubles for 101 minutes.