Made of Honor
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
Can you judge the quality of a movie based on title alone? The title for this one is really just a bad pun, isn't is? McDreamy (as the poor guy will always be known) is asked to be his BFF's maid of honor. But you can't call the movie "Maid of Honor," apparently, because he's a dude. So you call it "Made of Honor"? Even though he is clearly not made of anything honorable? I guess you can probably judge the quality of a movie by how long you spend thinking about the title during the movie.
The Story
Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy of TV's "Grey's Anatomy") stars as Tom, a guy who likes to have sex with lots of women. He's rich and good looking and drives a cool car. His only meaningful female relationship is with his best friend Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). They met in college when she wouldn't have sex with him, and now they spend every Sunday together hanging out in Manhattan. As Tom's guy friends note, Tom has the best of both worlds -- sex with a variety of women and a non-lover on the side for a best friend.
But when Hannah's job takes her to Scotland for six weeks, Tom comes to the realization that he can't live without her. He plans to tell her he's in love with her when she returns. Oops! Too late. She brings back a fiancee, a Scotish nobleman (Kevin McKidd of TV's "Journeyman") who seems perfect for her in every way.
Making it worse, she asks Tom to be her maid of honor. He agrees in order to stay close to Hannah and look for a chance to let her know how he feels. Comic role-reversal hi-jinx ensue, including run-ins with her other bridesmaids and an awkward trip to the groom's Scottish highlands castle for the wedding.
The Verdict
What Works: I'm with the mainstream critics in my dislike of this one, but director Paul Weiland and his team do one thing really well. They make both New York City and the Scotish countryside look like real places where you'd really love to hang out for a while. Following the tradition of New York-set romcoms, Weiland's NYC is crowded but cozy, full of interesting places to eat and real-but-more-interesting everyday people. And Scotland -- all green and cloudy -- let's all just go and rent a castle there for the weekend, shall we?
On the technical side, I don't know how they did it, but college Tom really does look like a much younger Patrick Dempsey. Just a good make-up job or did they use a little CGI? Impressive either way. And, honestly, Dempsey and Monaghan as Tom and Hannah do have some good chemistry together, especially in the early scenes where they just hang out and talk about life. But that slips away shortly after we learn she's engaged to the Scotsman.
What Doesn't Work: Here's the film's biggest problem. Tom is not a likable guy. His only redeeming quality is that he likes Hannah, but it's hard to see what she likes so much about him. He's a guy who got rich too easily, uses women for disposable pleasure, and treats the dweeby guy at the gym like a jerk -- all while seeming really happy with himself. You're supposed to be rooting for him to get together with Hannah, but if I was her mom (who also roots for Tom) I'd rather see her with the kilt-wearing, gun-shooting Scottish duke. He really does seem to be "made of honor."
And once you stop rooting for the Tom's romance to work out, all you've got left is the hit-and-miss comedy. It's not aggressively bad comedy, it's just mostly boring, haven't-I-already-seen-this-somewhere, often really crude comedy. It's an occasional chuckle comedy chasing down a kind of icky romance. But Scotland really did look nice.
Content: Lots of crude sexual stuff in this PG-13er, including jokes about all the usual body parts and functions. Tom, of course, has lots of sex with lots of women, and we see him in bed with a few. (No nudity.) Harsh language includes several uses of God's and Jesus' names for swearing, along with one or two near f-words.
Worldview
Here's the thing I don't get. "Made of Honor" fully subscribes to the current sitcom worldview of sexual morality in that it puts a giant divider between sex and love. Like everyone on "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and Half Men" (and "Friends," "Seinfeld," etc.), Tom and Hannah and their mates believe that sex is fun and a fine game to be played by consenting adults with no plans for commitment. But love is something that you really hope happens to you and that you can also hopefully enjoy sex with the person you fall in love with.
Even given that perspective, though, I just don't get how Hannah is going to be okay with Tom's sexual history. She knows he's had sex with hundreds of women, hundreds of really loose women who had sex with lots of other guys. Just from a practical point of view, wouldn't she be creeped out a little by the thought of all the sexual diseases Tom might have? Would she not be worried a tad that she won't measure up in the bedroom to his last 20 or so conquests? And, seriously, how long do any of us expect Tom to be able to have sex with just one woman after decades of indulgence?
I understand why someone would choose to be a player like Tom. Sex is easy and fun. Marriage and relationships are hard work. The lie in the film's worldview is the idea that "having feelings for" someone will make marriage and monogamy easy after a lifetime of commitment-free sex.
God understands human nature, too. His commands to His children to save sex for marriage are NOT about some arbitrary test of commitment. They are about placing a huge value on marriage, something He intended to be a picture of Jesus and the church. Sex is meant to make the marriage commitment a little easier, binding two people together (along with that whole baby-making thing). He intended love between husband and wife to be a willful vow designed to stand as the romantic feelings come and go and return stronger than ever. But if sex is a game and love is a feeling, then marriage is disposable. And that's not romantic or funny no matter how McDreamy your guy is.
Questions:
- Did you see "My Best Friend's Wedding"? Did you like it more or less than "Made of Honor"?
- Are you a fan of the McDreamy and his "Grey's" pals?
- If you could vacation in New York or Scotland for a week with your three best friends, which place and friends would you pick? Why?
- Did you like Tom in the movie? Did you really want the two of them to get together?
- Would it bother you to marry someone who has had sex with hundreds of other people? Why or why not? Do you think it would help or hurt your chances of having a good marriage?
- In a couple of sentences, how would you answer someone who asked why you think God cares about people saving sex for marriage?