Something Borrowed Review

Something Borrowed Review

Something Borrowed is one frustrating movie.  I am going to preface this review with the disclaimer that I have not read the book, or any of the books in this series.  They are popular literature, and I am sure they have an avid following, but this review only concerns the movie, and from an outsider's point of view. From the sounds of that first line you would probably think that I hated this movie.  The key word is FRUSTRATED. There were parts of the movie that I just hated and then there were moments that I really liked, but more on that later. First let me just say that the movie is so full of unintentionally despicable characters that it is hard to care about them, and it's really hard to be happy for anyone in the end.  I suppose that is my fault, Once again I allowed myself to be misled by a trailer. I went into the movie believing it to be a light hearted romantic comedy.  Instead you get what is more of a Dramedy, something attempting to be Four Weddings & A Funeral, and less How to Lose a Guy in 10 days.

The movie is essentially about getting a second chance at the one who got away.  Our main character Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) lets the man of her dreams Dex (Colin Egglesfield) fall in love with her pushy ego centric best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson.) When Rachel and Dex share a cab ride home, the secret crush is revealed, which leads to smooching, which leads to waking up naked together.  I love Four Weddings, I think it is a brilliant film, but part of the reason it is brilliant is because you like the characters, and you want good things to happen to them. In this movie, I couldn't help but be distracted by the fact that no matter how you slice it, the main character and her dreamy guy were lying and cheating, and cowardly.  Bad things happening to bad people at the hands of "good" people just didn't sit right with me.  Maybe if they had made Kate Hudson more unlikeable, and less annoying, it might have worked. They keep Kate Hudson's character sympathetic, and by keeping her from being easily hated it made the actions of the other two less acceptable. I almost got up and walked out of the theater at one point when I thought they were going to let the two off scott free, the fact that it didn't made me stay, feel a bit better inside, and respect the movie a bit more.

Now you are probably wondering if I was ready to walk out on the movie, then what could you possibly have liked.  There are actually two things that I enjoyed greatly in the movie. First Ethan played by Jon Krasinski. Ethan is a sidekick character (if you have ever seen pretty in pink think Duckie) and he was brilliant in every moment he had on screen.  He took a good solid supporting role and turned it into something great.  He is the one character in the movie I cared about, even when he was doing unlikeable things.  The second saving grace in the movie is Marcus played by Steve Howey.  Marcus is an immature slacker who moves from female to female as if he were a shark that would die if he stopped swimming. 

I am sure that I will be in the minority when it comes to this movie.  It is a very funny comedy at times, and the funny parts are what make the movie enjoyable. I am sure that most people will be throughly entertained by the movie, and won't give a lick about the fact that the main characters are horrible people. I just couldn't get past it, and that was frustrating to me.

Let me know what you think when Something Borrowed arrives in theaters Friday May 6th, 2011