A Bridesmaid in Love

Cate James (Tori Anderson) is an aspiring writer and a professional bridesmaid. She's hired to write a story about being a professional bridesmaid for a wedding magazine. She is presently a bridesmaid to her best friend Maxine and reconnects with Maxine's brother Matt.

Tori Anderson is a charming adorable TV actress with understated comedic skills. She is great for this type of TV romance movies. It would be great if she has better partners. This guy is non-descript. He blends in with the background. The story has a few plot elements and little juice. This is rather bland even for a TV movie.

Honestly? I've seen better acting in amateur drama groups. No-one shone in this film, the dialogue was spoken as though they were still reading the script - without emotion. Humorous parts were badly timed, and I can't believe the Casting Director wasn't fired for not finding more able actors.

Then the story should have been good but it was badly portrayed. How can a Gallery owner open a gallery without knowing what he's doing and relying on his mate for advice ? How can a mother walk into a room chatting away and not see the wedding bridesmaid sitting there ? Dad cooking at the stove, but was more like a model posing. So bad.

I recorded it, so after the excruciating first 20 minutes I whizzed through to the end.

Main character is very likable but not much chemistry with male counterpart. Some inconsistencies like...asking her to be the maid of honor the day before the wedding, and she just happens to have the perfect dress; supposed to be a big wedding at large venue but decide to have it in the backyard at the last minute...would still have to pay for venue at that point...also a lot fewer people in the backyard; they just happened to remake the wedding dress the night before without the bride ever trying it on! And it was cold enough you could see their breath at the reception when they talked while they are all in summer clothes. Makes it impossible to really enjoy the movie.

Tori, the female lead of this movie always provide good movies because of her presence and that smile. Absolutely Beautiful! However, they need to start giving her better male leads and scripts. Are people really that naïve with leaving prior to hearing the whole story while eavesdropping. Why are writers so lazy because a good percentage of this story was good.

The story borrows from so many formula elements. Cate calls herself a Professional Bridesmaid, but she is basically a wedding planner. She gets thrown together with the best man, or guy who had a crush on her in high school, to bring the wedding together at the last minute. Somehow combine that with Cate being a writer given an assignment for a wedding magazine. Meanwhile Cate's current boyfriend is a totally insensitive narcissist who asks for a break. But of course you know he doesn't go away completely. There's the big Misunderstanding which reminded me of Birthday Wish.

The acting is poor to bad by everyone except Tori Anderson and Lucie Guest. Guest outclasses everyone else by a mile as far as ability to act. Anderson is OK, but she has it going for her that she is perfect as the sweet and upbeat leading lady. Sean Poague, like some of the other actors, seems like he is trying too hard. I didn't see much chemistry with Anderson.

The dialogue has a few moments, but it's mostly average.

I love how all the movies of this type seem to think that all women can fit in the same size dresses. There's a scene where Cate walks up to Maxine's closet obviously several inches taller than her and then tries on a half dozen of her outfits that seem to fit perfectly. And we won't even talk about body type.

I will probably watch most movies with Anderson as a lead because she is appealing in looks and personality. Lucie Guest is always solid. But this movie was a disappointment in almost every other way.