Made of Honor

Rating: 2.5 stars

Once I got past the horrible pun in the title (and trust me, that took a Herculean effort), I had to admit that Made of Honor was a fairly breezy, proficient crowd pleaser. Is it going to make avowed chick flick bashers suddenly see the error of their ways? Hardly. But for fans of the genre, it goes down like Diet Coke—no nutrition, but tasty nonetheless.
Dr. McDreamy, er, Patrick Dempsey plays Tom, a ladies’ man who thinks he has the best of all worlds: Unencumbered sex with a variety of hot women and a deep friendship with his college pal Hannah (Michelle Monaghan.) Hannah goes to Scotland on a business trip for six weeks, and the commitment-phobic Tom comes to his senses, realizing that he’s in love with her.  Of course, she returns with a hunky Scotch fiancé in tow. This would all be almost painfully by-the-numbers were it not for a clever twist: Hannah asks Tom to be her maid-of-honor. Suddenly, he’s picking china patterns, and dealing with squabbling bridesmaids (one of whom is a jilted ex lover), while trying to secretly convince Hannah that he’s the one for her. There’s also a Greek chorus in the form of Tom’s basketball buddies, who at first take great pleasure in mocking his role in the wedding, but ultimately help out with necessary goodie bag stuffing. The script has a really bad habit of revisiting the same jokes over and over again, but Made of Honor mostly gets the job done. It was like a good wedding, where the crowd toasts the happy couple, dances a little, and goes home satisfied—and you don’t even have to eat any rubber chicken.