If they talk in film about stars shooting ‘one for yourself, and one for the bank’, this would be Anne Hathaway’s banker. After her stunning performance in Rachel Getting Married, Hathaway returns to romantic comedy for Fox’s annual female-orientated outing.
Alongside Kate Hudson, the pair are your stereotypical childhood friends dreaming of the perfect wedding since meeting years before as young girls in New York’s wondrous Plaza Hotel. When each at last gets engaged to their respective partners, the wheels are at last in motion for the days they have been dreaming of, and hand-in-hand they set about planning dresses, flowers, food, and of course the venue. After visiting the best wedding planner in town, Emma (Hudson) and Liv (Hathaway) book two of the last remaining open slots at the Plaza, but after a mix-up in the dates, end up with appointments at the same time, and no room to budge.
With neither willing to switch venues, an almighty tussle ensues, each trying to plan the best wedding and disrupt the other’s before the final showdown on the big day.
Following a well-trodden formula, Bride Wars offers very little in terms of originality but at least develops the story well despite a slight lag in the immediate run up to the weddings. For the targeted female audience, there’ll be plenty of laughs along the way, showing up men’s inability to understand the complexities of the pair’s quarrel and the importance of having a perfect wedding. As a result, the humour will run a little light for male audiences. There’s still enough to carry the film until the end, however, and Hathaway easily steals the show from a bumbling Kate Hudson with a captivating persona inside the confines of a rom-com.
Perhaps one to leave husbands or boyfriends behind, and for a male viewer, you’d struggle to justify much more than 2 stars, but for the female crowd, while Bride Wars certainly isn’t as good as gossip magazines will make it out to be, it is a step up from last year’s 27 Dresses.
3/5