Catfight takes comedy out of ‘Bride Wars’
Bride Wars starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway
When it comes to wedding plans and friendship, one’s plans can
lead to hurt feelings for their friends. After all, when a college
friend didn’t ask me to be a bridesmaid, I was fine with it
– until I discovered she had 15 bridesmaids in her wedding
party. I could see not making the top two or top five of her
lifelong friends’ list, but missing the top 15? It was quite a
blow.
But that was nothing compared to my best friend who informed me
of her nuptial bliss when she e-mailed photos from the honeymoon.
Sure we’d been best friends since junior high school and navigated
together through our first loves and broken hearts, but for some
reason when she decided to marry the man she wanted to spend the
rest of her life with, she left me off the guest list. In all
fairness, she left everyone off, with the exception of her parents,
so I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad. But I understand how wedding
plans can cause some tension in a friendship as they do in
”
Bride Wars.
”
Catfight takes comedy out of ‘Bride Wars’
Bride Wars starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway
When it comes to wedding plans and friendship, one’s plans can lead to hurt feelings for their friends. After all, when a college friend didn’t ask me to be a bridesmaid, I was fine with it – until I discovered she had 15 bridesmaids in her wedding party. I could see not making the top two or top five of her lifelong friends’ list, but missing the top 15? It was quite a blow.
But that was nothing compared to my best friend who informed me of her nuptial bliss when she e-mailed photos from the honeymoon. Sure we’d been best friends since junior high school and navigated together through our first loves and broken hearts, but for some reason when she decided to marry the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, she left me off the guest list. In all fairness, she left everyone off, with the exception of her parents, so I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad. But I understand how wedding plans can cause some tension in a friendship as they do in “Bride Wars.”
In “Bride Wars” Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) have been best friends since childhood. And they have been dreaming of the perfect wedding since their mothers took them to the Plaza hotel for tea one June afternoon. They happened to glimpse a wedding party and both decided that when the time came for them, they would be married at the New York landmark.
Now adults, Emma is a middle school teacher who gets manipulated into taking on extra duties at school and Liv is a high-powered lawyer who doesn’t take any flack from anyone. When Liv discovers a box from Tiffany’s in the closet at home, she assumes it is an engagement ring from her live-in boyfriend Daniel (Steve Howey). She announces to all her friends that she is engaged, or will be, as soon as Daniel pops the question. In the meantime, Emma’s boyfriend Fletcher (Chris Pratt) surprises her with a proposal.
The trouble for the lifelong friends comes when they meet with a legendary wedding planner who promises to get them both into the Plaza for June weddings. The two gush over Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen) though the woman does little for them in their first meeting. But when the planner calls them up to inform them that she has accidentally booked their weddings on the same day, the gloves come off. The girls have two options – they can both wed at the Plaza on June 6 at 5 p.m. and not be involved in each other’s weddings, or one of them can compromise. It’s clear that Liv expects the always flexible Emma to give in and change her date, especially after Liv reminds Emma that the Plaza offers one of the few good memories she has of time with her parents before they died. But Emma decides to fight for the space.
The fighting quickly turns ugly as they sabotage dresses, tans and hair styles. Unfortunately most of this part of the movie really isn’t all that funny, as the two inexplicably become more catty by the minute. Emma’s husband-to-be says it best when on the phone to Liv’s fiance; something about how the women might not want to show how crazy they are right before the wedding.
In the end the viewers are supposed to see that the fighting was really worth it when the girls finally reconcile. After all, without the wacky behavior and the isolation from their best friend, one of them wouldn’t have learned how to let her emotions show and the other wouldn’t have figured out that her husband-to-be wasn’t such a perfect fit – don’t worry there is another Mr. Right hovering in the sidelines the entire movie.
The last line in the movie is about how sometimes soulmates are not just the people we marry, but also are best friends would have held a lot more weight if we had not just sat through 60 minutes of these so-called soulmates slinging catty comments at each other.
