MOVIE REVIEW - Made Of Honor

Made Of Honor is the new Patrick Dempsey romantic comedy and to be perfectly honest, it may be the quintessential "chick-flick." That's not a bad thing, it's just the honest thing here.

Made Of Honor with Dempsey, and Michelle Monaghan is the story of Tom (Dempsey) and Hannah (Monaghan). They have been platonic best friends for 10 years since college, and she's ready to movie on the next chapter of her life. Tom is still immature and although successful, still stuck in some kind of college life time warp and not ready for commitment. Hannah goes to Scotland on business and meets Colin. He is the perfect man and she decides to get married. Hannah chooses Tom as her maid of honor, and Tom has the epiphany that Hannah is the one for him. Then it's on to Scotland to break up the engagement and win Hannah.

I know, it sounds just like 1997's My Best Friends Wedding with Julia Roberts - and it is to a degree. Although not a direct rip-off, the premise is the same in the end. There's nothing really wrong with MOH, but it doesn't hit one over the fence either. The soft backbone of MOH is that the script is incredibly predictable. You are way ahead of the movie the whole time, and there's no hint of a surprise to be found. Also, I don't think any of us are buying that Patrick Dempsey is 28 years old as we're asked to believe in MOH.

But the fresh face of Michelle Monaghan is the shining star of MOH. She has been in small roles in many movies since 2001, but here it's her movie. She is believable, beautiful and refreshing here. She looks like someone you would know, and someone you would like to know. Her performance in MOH is as good as the script will allow. But make no mistake. This is her movie, even Dempsey sits in the back seat to Monaghan in this flick. She is just great here in every regard.

Made Of Honor is not a bad night at the movies. You may sit there and think you've seen this story before a few times, and you have. Romantic - yes. But funny? Well....at times. The company you keep in going to this movie is real key here. A date movie extraordinaire. If you're with someone that would rather be in Ironman, well then not so much.