Not so McDreamy in
”
Made of Honor
”
Made of Honor starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan
Since the late 1980s, Patrick Dempsey has mostly had minor roles
in minor made-for-TV movies. He seemed to have peaked as the nerdy
Ronald Miller in the 1987 film
”
Can’t Buy Me Love
”
where he helps a popular girl out of a bind in exchange for
spending time with her in public. For anyone who doesn’t know, it
ended the way of the typical ’80s teen romantic comedies with an
odd pairing
– the curly-haired, lawn-mowing geek got the hot girl.
Not so McDreamy in “Made of Honor”
Made of Honor starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan
Since the late 1980s, Patrick Dempsey has mostly had minor roles in minor made-for-TV movies. He seemed to have peaked as the nerdy Ronald Miller in the 1987 film “Can’t Buy Me Love” where he helps a popular girl out of a bind in exchange for spending time with her in public. For anyone who doesn’t know, it ended the way of the typical ’80s teen romantic comedies with an odd pairing – the curly-haired, lawn-mowing geek got the hot girl.
Since then, Dempsey hasn’t been so lucky in love on the screen. In the few big screen movies in which he has been cast, he doesn’t get the girl – think “Sweet Home Alabama,” where he loses Reese Witherspoon to Josh Lucas without so much as a fight for her love.
But that all changed in 2005 with “Grey’s Anatomy.” ABC series creator Shonda Rhimes made the role of Dr. Derek Shepherd, aka McDreamy. Over four years, a TV audience of nearly 20 million has watched the epic romance of Dr. Shepherd (Dempsey) and intern/resident Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) as they try to balance their careers, relationship and plenty of obstacles that get in the way in true soap opera fashion. As the interns dubbed Dr. Shepherd McDreamy, watchers, too, seemed to think the wavy, dark-haired actor with the killer smile is something to drool over.
In “Made of Honor,” Dempsey gets much the same treatment as a man all women faun over. In it Dempsey plays Tom Bailey, a suave playboy who has a strict set of rules for dating. He doesn’t do back-to-back dates with the same woman. He won’t see the same woman more than once a week. He will not bring a woman he is dating to a family event or celebration. The women he dates are beautiful and all bow to his rules, though writers Adam Sztykiel and Deborah Kaplan don’t really do a very good job making it clear why women put up with him.
This is where the writers let viewers down big time. The thing with romantic comedies is we all pretty much know the course they are going to run, so it is the job of the writers to distract us from the predictability and the unbelievable plot turns as much as possible. The best way to do this is to make us laugh, but also to write good characters.
The first problem with this movie is that it never becomes clear why women make fools of themselves to be with Tom. Sure he’s got the dark wavy hair and bright blue eyes, and his character is supposed to be rich from an unlikely invention, but the writers never make me believe he really is charming enough to talk all those women into bed and get them to follow his rules.
The one exception to Tom’s rules is Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). Hannah is intelligent, thoughtful and lovely – and is someone Tom wouldn’t ever dream of dating. The two are friends who met under unusual circumstances and the movie starts with their meeting.
It is 1998 and it’s Halloween. It is the height of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the writers would have us believe it was the hit costume on university campuses everywhere. I was in college at the time, but since I was studying overseas I can’t verify its popularity. But on this particular campus, a Bill Clinton marauder meets a Monica who tells him to come to her room and reveals the location of a hidden key. When Clinton/Tom enters the room, instead of the sexy intern, he finds a freshman named Hannah.
He flirts and tries his best to woo her, but she spurns his advances and instead of becoming a one-night stand, they end up lifelong friends.
The make-up artists did a great job of making Dempsey look like a college student with pitch black hair, an earring and no wrinkles around his eyes. How they did it, I don’t know, but he looked a lot like Ronald Miller from 1987. But that leads me to the second big problem with the storyline. The movie jumps forward 10 years and viewers are to believe that Patrick Dempsey, with his wrinkles around his eyes and his graying temples is about 32 years old, when really he is a decade older and looks it. The make-up artists should have done a little more magic on his wrinkles.
Another problem with the movie is Hannah. Though she is supposed to be a smart, career-driven woman, she is willing to answer to Tom’s beck and call. They spend leisurely Sundays together doing all the things Tom can’t do with the women he is actually dating. She allows herself to be used by him again and again, and she smiles all the way through it, as few women I know would when being yanked about by a man they love who doesn’t reciprocate.
Of course, just when Tom begins to realize he might have feelings for Hannah, she goes off to Scotland for a six-week work tour and comes back with a Scottish fiancee. Against all common sense, she asks Tom to be her maid of honor, and he sets about trying to sabotage her wedding so he can be with her.
The writers’ attempts at comedy fall flat – and mostly rely on Tom falling on the ground or injuring himself – and Dempsey is not very good at physical comedy. The secondary characters, which include Tom’s male friends and Hannah’s other bridesmaids, are underdeveloped and add little to the plot.
The only reason to see this movie is if you are a big fan of Dempsey, and if you are, you’d be better served by renting “Can’t Buy Me Love” or watching a few episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
