Movie Review: Bride Wars

	TITLE: Bride Wars WHAT IT'S ABOUT: When their weddings are scheduled for the same day, best friends become bitter rivals RATING: PG GENRE: Comedy RELEASE DATE: January 9, 2009 RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes VIOLENCE FACTOR: No violence BAD WORDS: An obscenity or two, but nothing harsh or highlighted RACY?: A few suggestive comments in passing GRANDS

Two best friends and brides-to-be discover their dream weddings have been scheduled at the same time and place

by Bill Wine

CRITIQUE:
Best friends Liv and Emma were 6 years old when they fantasized and discussed their eventual respective wedding days; the venue was always the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Two decades later, because of a clerical error, both weddings are scheduled for the Plaza at the same time and date. Each bride is committed to being the maid of honor at the other's wedding, and neither is willing or able to find another date at the Plaza; something has to give.

The first thing to give was our patience, strained by the shaky premise, awkward dialogue, and overwrought behavior in this supposed romp. Bride Wars is a raucous comedy that's so over the top in its first two acts when a climactic outburst arrives in the third act, it lands with an anticlimactic thud.

Kate Hudson (Liv), also one of the producers, and Anne Hathaway (Emma) star as the lifelong buds. Liv is a high-powered lawyer, Emma a mild-mannered schoolteacher. But when the going gets tough, these two go nuts. Revenge and oneup(wo)manship become the norm. 

Director Gary Winick (Charlotte's Web, 13 Going on 30, Tadpole) — working from a committee-concocted screenplay by Greg DePaul, Casey Wilson, and June Diane Raphael — turns his two talented leads loose, but denies them a worthy script. When one of their characters is accused of being obnoxious and overbearing, we mutter, "And so's your movie."

We do buy the friendship depicted at the beginning and end of the scenario, but not the eventual extreme antics of the two principals trying to ruin each other's wedding plans.

Granddaughters and grandmothers who share the focal characters' interest in wedding accoutrements should have more patience for this charmless material than begrudging grandsons and grandfathers. But discriminating viewers of both genders will answer the question, "Do you find this movie getting on your nerves?" in the same way:

"I do."

Did you and your grandchildren see all of last year's family gems? Check off the list of Our Favorite Movies of 2008.