Anne Hathaway rules the screens this month in Singapore, with three movies hitting the screens - Rachel Getting Married, Passengers, and now teaming up with Kate Hudson for my second wedding theme movie of the day, Bride Wars. Alas this film by director Gary Winick had the trailer to thank for in letting every cat out of the bag that there's little surprise left when the girls have a go at each other.
Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Hathaway) are best friends since young, where they were subconsciously programmed that they must be each other's maid of honour, as well as to have their weddings at New York's swanky The Plaza in June. Fast forward to today, and they are on the cusp of their engagements, which of course meant that they do get to finally turn their long held dreams into reality. From being girly about attending each other's events to engaging one of the finest wedding planners ever, Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen), little do they know a small administrative screw up will threaten their very friendship.
One wonders if girls can indeed be so petty over such little details. You see, the entire plot hinges on this very fine condition that the two girls hold onto, and that is to be each other's maid of honour. Which doesn't make sense because they can each have their wedding on the same day and at the same venue (different ballrooms of course), but because of their insistence to be present at their best friend's wedding, they fall out, insult each other, and declare war.
So only if you buy that wee bit of irrationality (OK, so some claim that the opposite sex can get unreasonable from time to time...) do you buy into the entire bickering, where they go one up against the other, sabotaging plans to be at their best come their wedding day. It also helps that the demeanour of the girls are on opposite sides of the spectrum, with Liv being the alpha-female go-getter who doesn't take no for an answer, and Emma the good natured sweetheart. Of course the series of back-biting do change their characters both for the worse and for the better. Best friends can become your worst enemies since they know every dirty little secret you had confided in them before, and can exploit your very weakness to gain an advantage, so one can find it easy to identify with the predicament of both sides.
Those who suffer will nonetheless be the common friends, who have to sit on the fence and not take sides. The trailer has spelt out the storyline and laid out the best jokes on the table, so unless you're really hard up for jokes that you know the punchline to, this may be just an average chick flick. Having it rated PG (instead of the original NC-16) also meant that some of the more coarse dialogue in Marion St. Claire's meeting with the girls, get chopped off quite abruptly.
