Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Bride Wars


bride wars
Originally uploaded by Cine Fanatico
Bride Wars is just what the name would imply. Emma & Liv are best friends since childhood and have dreamed of having June weddings at the Plaza hotel, when both their boyfriends propose they think all their wedding dreams are going to come true…until their wedding planners assistant makes the mistake of booking their weddings on the same day and time instead of two separate days. When neither Emma or Liv will move their wedding date old rivalries begin to bubble to the surface and an all out war between the friends starts.

What I really liked about Bride Wars is the pairing of Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. Together these two women are a dynamic duo that are each capable of making the audience laugh and then bringing an emotional moment to the forefront.

I was surprised by this movie because the name Bride Wars would imply that it is about the wedding more than anything else, not about the couple or the marriage. However, this move proved to be about not just the friendship between the women, but the relationship they had with their fiancées and how each couple is weathering problems and the characters take into account how this might affect their marriage.

There is a trend in film and television now to use a still image but change the perspective or pring “life” to the image by making the background continue moving, zooming in, etc. It drives me nuts. I hate it. It looks flattened, no longer dynamic and typically sticks out like a sore thumb. Bride Wars uses this freeze framed image technique for it’s exposition sequences and that’s just far too much use of that device – this is by far my biggest bone to pick with the film.

If you’re looking for a romantic comedy with just the right amount of cheese, but with some fun chemistry in it’s cast I do think Bride Wars is a cute film. However, it’s really not my cup of tea, but I am sure plenty of girls will watch this over and over again.

Director: Gary Winick
Writer: Greg DePaul, Casey Wilson & June Diane Raphael
Liv: Kate Hudson
Emma: Anne Hathaway
Nate: Bryan Greenberg
Fletcher: Chris Pratt
Daniel: Steve Howey
Marion St. Claire: Candice Bergen
Deb: Kristen Johnston

Marion St. Claire: Sometimes in life there really are bonds formed that can never be broken. Sometimes you really can find that one person who will stand by you no matter what. Maybe you'll find it in a spouse and celebrate it with your dream wedding, but theres also the chance that the one person you can count on for a lifetime, the one person who knows you sometimes better than you know yourself is the same person who's been standing beside you all along.

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