Film

Made of Honour (2008)

Director: Paul Weiland

Synopsis

Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is something of a whiz with the ladies. Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) is his down-to-earth best friend who he can always rely on to get him out of scrapes. That is until she heads over to Scotland for a six-week business trip and Tom realises how much he misses her. He makes a promised to himself that when she returns, he'll ask Hannah to marry him. However, he soon discovers that she has become engaged to a handsome and wealthy Scotsman and plans to move overseas. The film is directed by Brit helmer Paul Weiland who gave us last year’s very decent ‘Sixty Six’.

Movie review

From Time Out London

This is by no means the worst addition to the burgeoning genre of the wedding comedy. Patrick Dempsey follows up his successful role in ‘Enchanted’ with a likeable turn as lothario Tom, who has a monstrous fear of commitment inherited from his father (Sydney Pollack), who’s about to marry his sixth trophy wife. Pollack’s scenes are amusing without exception: his lawyer is still negotiating pre-nup minutiae as the latest bride arrives at the church. (Her car has to continue circling the block when the lawyers start arguing about the frequency of their conjugal activities.)

But this is mainly about Tom and Hannah (an equally pleasant Michelle Monaghan), which makes the majority of the film more sunny but less funny. The pair are firm friends with an unconsummated attraction, and when Tom’s pals finally persuade him that she’s the one, he prepares to declare his love – only Scottish Colin (Kevin McKidd) gets there first.

Mr Perfect Colin is an initially funny character, proving his macho superiority on Tom’s home turf. But when the action shifts to Colin’s palatial Scottish castle the film falls into familiar territory.

There’s fun to be had from Tom’s attempts to compete with the girlish bridesmaids (he’s the titular maid of honour) but the plot holds little suspense, and the script’s sharp wit is undermined by all the kilt sporting and whisky supping. And so this moves from comedy to cliché – but there’s still enough charm to make it a serviceable romantic comedy.

---

• 
•