Wedding Bells Bring Tangled Webs in Something Borrowed

Level-headed brunette Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) and fun-loving blonde Darcy (Kate Hudson) have been best friends since childhood. Now that their 20s are coming to an end, the differences between their personalities are striking, but with her wedding fast approaching, Darcy has no doubt in her mind as to who she wants as her maid of honor. The only trouble is that it was Rachel who introduced Darcy to her fiancé Dex (Colin Egglesfield), who she secretly adored all through law school. When the surprise 30th birthday party Darcy throws for her leaves Rachel drunk and despondent, it leads to a quiet moment in which she unthinkingly blurts out her long-repressed feelings and discovers that they were mutual. Are mutual. Shenanigans ensue. Will Rachel confess? Will Dex? Was this a horrible one-time mistake, or was the bigger mistake Dex’s proposal to Darcy?

This movie, directed by Luke Greenfield and with a screenplay by Jennie Snyder based on the novel by Emily Giffin, is a PG-13 rated romantic comedy, and it’s really less of a comedy than it at first appears. There’s some unsavory language to wade through, but the bigger reason for the rating is the steamy stuff that, while rarely shown, frequently seeps into the dialogue and is a big part of the storyline. The film unfolds in such a way that the audience’s sympathies are likely to be divided. On the one hand, Dex and Rachel’s untimely shedding of their inhibitions makes us inclined to see them in an unfavorable light, with one betraying his fiancée and the other her best friend. On the other hand, Rachel and Dex have a deeper relationship that stretches further back. They have far more in common, and Dex’s face lights up whenever he sees Rachel. Thus, one can’t help rooting for these two to get together, to finally course-correct from the unfortunate directions their lives took as a result of their toxic timidity.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen Egglesfield in anything before, but he thoroughly captured my attention here. In Darcy’s presence, Dex is polite but almost unfailingly uncomfortable, while he seems at blissful ease with Rachel. One wonders why he ever wanted to marry Darcy, since they seem so totally mismatched. It seems to be a combination of sheer physical attraction and Darcy’s forceful personality overpowering his reserved one, though I think Goodwin actually looks a lot prettier in this movie than Hudson does. Her quiet performance grabbed me as much as Egglesfield’s, particularly the sparkle in her eyes in the flashbacks to grad school, before everything got so complicated.

While I found both Rachel and Dex more innately likable, I may have been most impressed with Hudson’s performance because it’s so hard to know what to make of her character. In some ways, she’s really quite obnoxious. She’s frequently drunk, and she has a tendency to behave in outrageous, embarrassing ways. However, whatever else she is, Darcy appears to be a genuinely loyal friend who would never dream that Dex and Rachel could be going behind her back with each other. Hudson emphasizes just enough of her sweetness and vulnerability that we’re not allowed to forget what a crummy thing those two did.

That isn’t to say that, once those feelings came to light, I think they should have been immediately ignored and the wedding should have proceeded as planned. “You can’t marry someone when you’re in love with someone else,” Captain Von Trapp declared in The Sound of Music. So what did he do? He broke off his engagement and proposed to the right woman. Here it’s just give in to passion first, think later, and above all, avoid owning up to any wrongdoing at all costs, including your own happiness.

While I hadn’t heard anything about this movie before my friend brought it over last night, she mentioned that The Office’s John Krasinski has been receiving accolades for his role as Ethan, a mutual childhood friend of Darcy and Rachel. While he has shortcomings of his own, particularly when it comes to how he deals with Claire (Ashley Williams), a woman with whom he had a fling but in whom he has no lingering interest, Ethan serves as confidante and counselor to Rachel, and it’s through him that we get the strongest sense of what makes this woman tick. Meanwhile, Steve Howey reminds me of Ashton Kutcher in his role as the libidinous, borderline repulsive oddball Marcus.

It took me a little while to warm to the movie, but once I did, I really found myself drawn in. Frustratingly, romantic comedies that restrict themselves to lip-locks are increasingly rare these days, and this certainly is no exception to the rule, though even if the main characters were as chaste as the Jonas Brothers, it would only slightly lessen the driving conflict. What makes the movie intriguing is the fact that our protagonists are two people who should have gotten together in the first place and whose failure to communicate has turned a beautiful relationship into something shameful. We want them to get together in the end, but we don’t really want them to get off scot-free either. And where does this all leave Darcy, let alone her long-standing friendship with Rachel, which she claims to cherish even more than her relationship with Dex? How, too, does Ethan fit in?

By the end of the movie, what really struck me about it was that it felt more realistic than a lot of movies in this genre. All of the main characters have likable characteristics, and all of them do despicable things, sometimes in the name of friendship. A desire to avoid hurting another’s feelings degenerates into more reasons for that person’s feelings to be hurt. From its chaotic beginning to its untidy ending, Something Borrowed aptly demonstrates the problems that can arise when clear communication and courage are absent, in friendship and love alike.

He's Just Not That Into You, and She Probably Isn't Either

A few years back, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo published He's Just Not That Into You to great acclaim. While it received its fair share of criticism, my best friend was a big fan of the book and thought it offered valuable advice, so she was looking forward to the movie. Though I hadn't read it, I thought the movie looked fun and was all for us seeing it opening weekend. It won't be nominated for any Oscars, but I found it a fairly entertaining romp through the maze of dating that many men and women navigate.

He's Just Not That Into You, directed by Ken Kwapis and adapted for the screen by Abby Kohn and Mark Silverstein, takes a self-help book and turns it into a romantic comedy with an intersecting cast of characters. Most often, bartender Alex (Justin "I'm a Mac" Long) serves as the voice of the book, doling out practical advice to the clueless-in-love Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), who can't ever seem to secure a second date. That function is also occasionally fulfilled by various clusters of gay men, the implication being, I suppose, that they are able to be objective observers to these little dramas that play out over and over. It's only one of the movie's many stereotypes; given the thrust of the book, though, I can deal with that. Each of the characters is being used to illustrate a point.

Alex and Gigi are probably the most interesting, rounded characters, but the movie never keeps the focus on anyone for very long. There are too many different stories to explore. We meet Beth (Jennifer Aniston), who has lived with her boyfriend Neil (Ben Affleck) for seven years and is growing frustrated with his apparent lack of interest in marriage. Conor (Kevin Connolly), one of Gigi's failed dates, doesn't know where he stands with Anna (Scarlett Johansson), whose affection for him seems to have cooled considerably. Little does he know that she's in hot pursuit of Ben (Bradley Cooper), a man struggling to be a faithful husband to the steady Janine (Jennifer Connelly) in the face of temptation. Somewhat removed from all this is Mary (Drew Barrymore), who uses the Internet to connect to potential love interests, though she ties in nicely by the conclusion.

In addition to all of these main characters, there are several unnamed folks - mostly women - who give testimonials about their experiences in the romance department. These are among the funnier scenes in the movie, as is the opener, which uses a playground disappointment to set up a lifetime of unrealistic expectations. It all seems very cynical at first, but as the film draws to a close, there are indications that love may not be so out of reach for at least some of these people after all.

One scene in particular produced a prolonged "Awwwwwwwww" from the female portion of the audience, prompting one guy to shout out, "You girls are so sad!" That statement could sum up the sentiments of a good chunk of the movie, which shows women going far out of their way to rationalize a man giving them the cold shoulder. By the same token, the men are generally shown as insensitive and full of brush-off tactics. There's about as much coarse language as a PG-13 film will allow. Then there's the fact that one of the movie's "rules" is, "If she's not sleeping with you, she's just not that into you." While other rules are refuted to some degree, this one never is, and it's bothersome that among all of these characters, not one considers abstinence a viable option. The whole thing makes the dating game look pretty unappealing and seems to me to support the idea that, as I've always suspected, it's usually better to just let a relationship develop naturally out of an acquaintance or friendship instead of actively searching for Mr. or Ms Right, one bad date at a time.

Some may find He's Just Not That Into You more relevant than others. While I didn't see a lot there that applies to me, it seemed like a reasonably insightful peek into the potential pitfalls of dating. The humor and strong ensemble cast make this a movie worth checking out if romance has you a bit down this Valentine's Day.