Guerra de novias

Anne Hathaway rules the screens this month in Singapore, with three movies hitting the screens - Rachel Getting Married, Passengers, and now teaming up with Kate Hudson for my second wedding theme movie of the day, Bride Wars. Alas this film by director Gary Winick had the trailer to thank for in letting every cat out of the bag that there's little surprise left when the girls have a go at each other.

Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Hathaway) are best friends since young, where they were subconsciously programmed that they must be each other's maid of honour, as well as to have their weddings at New York's swanky The Plaza in June. Fast forward to today, and they are on the cusp of their engagements, which of course meant that they do get to finally turn their long held dreams into reality. From being girly about attending each other's events to engaging one of the finest wedding planners ever, Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen), little do they know a small administrative screw up will threaten their very friendship.

One wonders if girls can indeed be so petty over such little details. You see, the entire plot hinges on this very fine condition that the two girls hold onto, and that is to be each other's maid of honour. Which doesn't make sense because they can each have their wedding on the same day and at the same venue (different ballrooms of course), but because of their insistence to be present at their best friend's wedding, they fall out, insult each other, and declare war.

So only if you buy that wee bit of irrationality (OK, so some claim that the opposite sex can get unreasonable from time to time...) do you buy into the entire bickering, where they go one up against the other, sabotaging plans to be at their best come their wedding day. It also helps that the demeanour of the girls are on opposite sides of the spectrum, with Liv being the alpha-female go-getter who doesn't take no for an answer, and Emma the good natured sweetheart. Of course the series of back-biting do change their characters both for the worse and for the better. Best friends can become your worst enemies since they know every dirty little secret you had confided in them before, and can exploit your very weakness to gain an advantage, so one can find it easy to identify with the predicament of both sides.

Those who suffer will nonetheless be the common friends, who have to sit on the fence and not take sides. The trailer has spelt out the storyline and laid out the best jokes on the table, so unless you're really hard up for jokes that you know the punchline to, this may be just an average chick flick. Having it rated PG (instead of the original NC-16) also meant that some of the more coarse dialogue in Marion St. Claire's meeting with the girls, get chopped off quite abruptly.

The romantic comedy is a type of film that relies on two obvious traits; the ability to make its audience laugh, and the ability to make that very same audience tear-up or at least feel some degree of warmth towards the central characters' love story. Bride Wars, which ostensibly at least, takes the form of your typical rom-com is an example of such that constantly tries to do the former -while constantly failing-, and only hints at the latter only in the background in order to advance plot. The result from this is a middling and sluggishly mundane feature that neither offers memorable characters or even a few cheap laughs. To be fair, there has to be something said for the fact that I am not exactly within the movie's target demographic. Yet judging by the reactions of those around me, I got the feeling that what I was experiencing wasn't exactly gender exclusive.

The story here, which revolves around two best gal-pals Liv (Kate Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) as they try to cope with their simultaneous weddings, is one that is likely to get a few chuckles from females, but less so with their male counterparts. Yes, this is somewhat expectant of a movie titled Bride Wars, but then again, if half of your audience are neglected to the sidelines then you're needlessly cutting yourself short. This stunted, polarising depiction of "every girl's biggest day" feels fitting to its source material, so women will enjoy this moreso than men, but not by much. You see, aside from the fact that Bride Wars wants nothing more than to cater to cheap gags and sappy melodrama fit to please the Legally Blonde crowd, there also remains blatant problems in just about everything else that fills the movie's first two acts. With little romance to back up the meagre plot, dull, dry characterisation coupled with non-existent chemistry between either the friends and their partners, or even themselves, the vast majority of Bride Wars turns ugly, rather quickly; the movie pushes that this cat fight between Hudson and Hathaway is meant to be fun and airy with plenty of laughs, but it's too transparent and formulated to even move beyond dry caricature.

It doesn't help at all that the majority of the performances from the main cast are border line negligible. Hudson and Hathaway, who are supposed to playing long-time best buddies who suddenly fall out over a petty dispute, are strangely forgettable, if not repelling. In all fairness, both hit the proverbial hammer on the head with their portrayals as stock-pile, cardboard cut-out typecasts befitting of the genre and only the genre, but this isn't exactly saying much. The remainder of the cast, who each have around ten minutes tops of total screen time are just as unremarkable, with Kristen Johnston giving the movie its only real favour and edge. So, what's worse than a romantic comedy with next to no compelling or memorable performances? Not much.

To be fair however, Bride Wars isn't really a romance at all. At least, that's what I hope director Gary Winick was trying to put across (somehow I get the feeling that I'm giving too much benefit of the doubt). If anything, the movie exists more as a mildly poignant example of companionship in the form of friends rather than romance. This tangent, which takes full form in the third act, for the most part surpasses the drudgery that comes beforehand, and establishes a touching, if slightly overly done sentimental climax. By all means, it's far too little, all too late, but I at least found myself moved by the movie's final statement, even if it was by means of extreme contrast. Yet had Winick went with this theme for the majority of his film, rather than save it for after all the silly, perfunctory cat fight scenes that in turn just about destroy all human shades within his characters, Bride Wars could have been a much more flowing, and relevant feature. Instead it exists simply as throwaway popcorn fodder for girls on a night out who have nothing better to do than to revisit the same old characters, wacky situations and sit-com dialogue typical of your average Will & Grace episode.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)

The movie tells a story of two childhood friends who had a dream of a perfect wedding ceremony in a Plaza Hotel. When the girls are already young and beautiful women and the day comes that they are both engaged, they start to plan their perfect wedding in Plaza. Thereby the are confronted with different problems and even try to ruin each others wedding.

"Bride Wars" doesn't really stand for movies I usually watch. Although I wanted to watch it, mainly because of Anne Hathaway. I was told she is a good actress and is playing quite good in that movie. Well I can partly agree with that. Her performance in "Bride Wars" was surely satisfactory, however I believe her role was not really challenging. For the rest, I have to confess that the story of the movie is quite poor. It is obvious that the idea of the movie is to show us how two childhood friends deal with their friendship when their most desired dream seems to come true. However this appears unrealistic in the movie. Two best friends who know each other for over twenty years wouldn't try to spoil each others lives. "Bride Wars" appears also not that funny as it probably should be. The jokes are even a bit dumb and absolutely not funny.

Summing up I think that "Bride Wars" is a motion picture made more for girls who also have bright thoughts about their wedding.

This is not a bad film, but it falls far short of its potential, given its two talented stars (Anne Hathaway as Emma, and Kate Hudson as Liv) who portray best friends who grow up sharing a dream of the perfect wedding.

When it comes time for their big days, a wedding planner makes a scheduling mistake, and they find themselves adversaries. Though they still love each other, their desire to realize their dreams overpowers their affection. What follows is a battle of "tit for tat".

The story is rather formulaic. And there are no surprises. And opportunities were missed that might have resulted in more entertainment. For example, in one scene, Anne Hathaway dances, but Kate Hudson just sits and watches her, despite the fact that Hudson can dance and it would have made more sense if the Liv character had done just that.

Also, since Hudson and Hathaway are both accomplished singers, one can imagine a scene that would involve singing, say a karaoke competition.

The problem with some people is that, they never wanna change with time, everyone in the world has his/her heyday... but one day it ends and a new subject starts. That's the sole problem with 'Bride Wars'. The film is plain mediocre and that's it biggest flaw. Agreed you don't go inn watching this one with gargantuan expectations, but come on... this film is routine stuff which we have seen so many times before. In a nutshell, These 2 Brides marriages are far from awaited.

Performances: Anne Hathaway looks a million bucks and does a good job. Kate Hudson, the Goldie Hawn of today is pretty energetic. Others are okay.

on the whole 'Bride Wars' is been there done that stuff. Watch this one, with having zero expectations.