Bride Wars: Comedy Down the Aisle

“If I were your wedding, I would be sleeping with one eye open. . .” – Liv

     Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson team up as two best friends in the funny and romantic comedy Bride Wars as powerhouses Emma (Hathaway) and Liv (Hudson) living in New York city, close with one another after years of friendship strengthened by their love of two things: the extravagant Plaza Hotel, and, of course, their weddings.

     Liv and Emma seem like typical best friends; they’ve planned their weddings since they were children, and have always loved the idea of getting married at the Plaza Hotel, a desired location for elegant and modern marriages. The two twenty-six-year-old women do almost everything together, and as they see many of their friends begin to marry, are excited to wed themselves and hope that their boyfriends propose.

     Although the two are opposites, they’ve managed to stick together over the years. Liv is a completely in control and cool, composed lawyer who tries to have everything ultimately perfect, while Emma does her best to remain calm and collected as a school teacher of a local secondary school, always settling for what she has and never quite able to take risks. (This may seem like a bit unrealistic or a somewhat overused idea to viewers with opposites attracting, but both Hudson and Hathaway do eventually find a way to add more depth to their friendship near the end of the movie.)

    Everything seems idealistic when both Liv and Emma are suddenly engaged, just within days of one another due to their surfacing competitive nature withtheir upcoming weddings. Things seem absolutely perfect; they are both able to hire Marion, a famous wedding planner in upper-class New York, to help book their weddings at the Plaza Hotel. Both Liv and Emma have their perfect dates set: the 6th of June for Liv, the same date as her deceased parents’ anniversary, and the 27th of June for Emma.

     When a strange mistake occurs and the two women discover their weddings have been accidentally booked on the same date – the 6th – both are, at first, quite levelheaded about the situation they are in, trying to compromise . . . Soon after, things go downhill from there on, and it won’t be long until they two are at war.

     Hathaway and Hudson provide many laughs for the audience, portraying their characters well; Hudson is very comedic as a control-freak that has a strange obsession with sweets ( she’s referenced as an “Ex-heifer” by Emma’s co-worker ), and Hathaway shows her usual dynamic and hilarious acting skills when she lets Emma’s wild side break loose and has a wonderful time getting sweet revenge instead of staying on the sidelines.

     Bride Wars also has an array of funny and well-casted actors that occasionally give the movie a realistic feel and also serve laughs for viewers. Emma’s fellow teacher, for example, is absolutely hilarious with her oblivious attitude, and her offhand comments are entertaining due to their forwardness and their sarcasm.

     Although the movie serves well as a romantic comedy, Bride Wars occasionally fails with providing a stable plot in the movie, and can often get wrapped up in only the silly revenge of the two former best friends. Also, viewers may not be pleased with the typically overused storyline that could seem stale and even ridiculous; the plot of a wedding as the main conflict in a movie can easily be said to be slightly too J. Lo ( think Wedding Planner or Monster-in-Law ) and boring, or flat-out pointless.

     Besides the lack of plot, skeptics may easily be wondering: why are these women so desperate to settle down and get married to a man at the young age of 26? Even to the fans of Bride Wars, this does take away from the overall positive view of the film, not including how insanely angered and flat-out crazy with revenge the two brides act throughout much of the film.

     Overall, Bride Wars is a cute chick-flick that provides laughs, a few good bits of comedy here and there, and traces of a heartwarming relationship that is timeless between two best friends. Don’t forget to keep in mind when going to see the movie: you won’t have to truly think to process anything, so if intelect is your style, you should either let your mind rest for an hour and a half or see a serious flick like Benjamin Button or Gran Torino.