Would you give up your dream wedding for your best friend? (Bride Wars (DVD))

Member Name: Great_reviewer07

Product:	Bride Wars (DVD)
Date:	26/05/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, quirky

Disadvantages: Some silly moments

Bride Wars is a 2009 comedy film directed by Gary Winick and Kate Hudson. The film did very well at the box office, grossing an estimated $112,635,270 on a budget of $30,000,000. The film was unfortunately mainly met with negative critism. Bride Wars is rated 12 and runs for approximately 89 minutes.

Gary Winick directs, he's also directed: 13 Going On 30, Charlotte's Web and Pieces Of April.

Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson play the lead roles. Anne Hathaway can be seen in: The Devil Wears Prada, Get Smart and The Princess Diaries. Kate Hudson can be seen in: How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, You, Me & Dupree and Fools Gold. The supporting cast features: Candice Bergen (The Women), Chris Pratt (The OC) and Brian Greenberg (One Tree Hill).

Since Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) were little they've always dreamed of the perfect wedding. They've been best friends ever since childhood and attended their first wedding together, it was held in June at the Plaza, from that moment on Emma and Liv decided that they would have their weddings at the Plaza in June.

Cut to 20 years or so in the future, Emma is now a primary school teacher and Liv is a high flying lawyer. Emma has been with the same man Fletcher for the last 10 years, they met at college and are very settled in their relationship. Liv is with Daniel and is also very happy. When the two best friends get engaged at the same time they decide to hire the most famous wedding planner in Manhattan (Candice Bergen) and get right on in their plans of a June wedding at the Plaza Hotel. However when there's a double booking and the girls end up with their wedding on the same day all hell breaks loose. They were planning on being each other's maid of honour, something which can't happen if they're getting married on the same day. Both girl thinks that their wedding is more important and wants the other one to change the day. When they're both as stubborn as each other the two girls go about sabotaging the others wedding. Will they manage to make up in time for each other's special day or is their friendship over for good?

This is a film that I had planned to watch at the cinema but unfortunately never got round to it so when it was released on DVD a couple of days ago I jumped at the chance to watch it. This movie is right up my street so I was hoping to thoroughly enjoy it and fortunately I did.

The story is nothing new and some people would quite willingly peg this as just another run of the mill chick flick and in a way it is but for change this isn't a rom-com. It's a film that revolves around the friendship of two women in which men take the back seat. I think it's nice to see a film taking a different direction than your usual chick flick films that revolve around men and women fighting over men. I liked how everything in the film panned out and all the shenanigans that the girls get up to in order to sabotage each other's big day are very enjoyable and funny to watch.

I think that Anne Hathaway is a far better actress than Kate Hudson and even though Anne Hathaway is more famed for her serious roles I think she steals the show from chick flick veteran Kate Hudson. It was nice to see the relationship between the girls and it looked like they got on well off-screen too which is always a bonus. The girls were really funny together and bounced off each other well. The male leads however, played by Chris Pratt (Fletcher) and Steve Howey (Daniel) seemed somewhat wooden in their performance. They almost look like they were in the film simply to be props for the girls to work with. Neither of the men showed any emotion throughout the film and you really didn't care about whether the girls married them or not. I think this was the only real letdown of the film, other than that I found it to be a very entertaining comedy film.

The beginning of the film is arguably weaker than the second half of the film, after around 45 minutes the film really heats up and becomes a lot more enjoyable. Up until that point it's simply the girls playing mean tricks on the other to try and get on over on each other which is funny and enjoyable to watch to an extent but the film becomes a lot more enjoyable when the weddings approach. In the second half of the film you see some emotion from the two girls as (predictably) they start to miss each other, this makes the film more watchable because you find yourself willing them to make up and although the situation of the same wedding day may not ring true for anyone but everyone can relate to how they're feeling after falling out with your best friend.

I think the ending was perfect for the narrative and although some parts are a bit cheesy and predictable, some aren't and even if you know what's going to happen it's still pleasing to see everything come together at the last minute. This was a really enjoyable chick flick and is 100 times better than the previous 'comedy' film I watched and reviewed (The Women). I'd highly recommend giving it a go. As it's only been out on DVD a couple of days it's going to be expensive, I would suggest renting it if you're not sure as to whether you'll enjoy it or not.

The DVD is currently available from play.com for £12.99 which is very high so it may be a good idea to wait a month or two for the price to reduce.

The special features include:
The Perfect White Dress Featurette
Three Deleted Scenes
Alternate Opening
Blue Hair And Bedazzler
Liv Finds Bedazzled Dress

Summary: A good, fun girly film