RATING: 2/5
Something obnoxious, something bad, something forgettable, something wasted -- it's just hard to describe something good about this charmless adaptation of Emily Griffin's beach-read bestseller, SOMETHING BORROWED. It's a typical chick-flick genre with all kinds of formulaic romantic comedy cliches you can think of. Mind you, not that being formulaic is a bad thing but it's how the way things are presented. Unfortunately, this movie only fares few and far between as the bulk of the rest is painfully overlong and unpleasant.
The story is about Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin), a 30-year-old lawyer who is yet to settle down whereas her best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson) is about to marry Dex (Colin Egglesfield), Rachel's former classmate from law school. And here's a thing: Rachel is actually been having a massive crush on him ever since they took their first Torts class together, but she hardly takes action. But on the night of her 30th birthday party, Rachel and Dex unexpectedly end up sleeping together. Both of them feel guilty the next morning and a series of awkwardness begins. However, their course of action has somehow make Dex having a second thought about marrying Darcy. At the same time, Rachel starts to grow so affectionate of him even though she knows that it's a wrong thing to do. Her wrongdoings is subsequently discovered by her other best friend, Ethan (John Krasinski) who does his best to convince her to take action against Dex before it's all too late.
No formula is left unturned in Jennie Snyder Urman's cliched-ridden screenplay. It's a shame that she fails to utilize the core of the story which centers the conflicts between Rachel, Darcy and Dex. Just about everything here feels superficial and halfhearted. It doesn't help either when the characters are written in mostly dishonest manner and none of them are substantial enough to make us care about them. For Rachel, she is just plain pathetic. Why she have to wait six long years to express her feeling towards Dex when Dex and Darcy are about to get married? While Ginnifer Goodwin is appealing enough to watch for, her character is so selfless and irritating each time the way she make her on-and-off decision against Dex. Then there's Darcy -- a one-dimensional and self-centered bitch, played typically by Kate Hudson. Her character is simply unlikable. Colin Egglesfield, who does the Tom Cruise-like impersonation (okay, he does look like Tom Cruise, only taller) fares even worse -- he's a total wimp of a character. Yes, he is handsome and charming but deep down, what makes him such an affectionate person for two women (Rachel and Darcy) in the first place? Ditto to that.
Don't let me getting started with the supporting actors here. The inclusion of Marcus (Steve Howey), a slacker who cares nothing but sex, and another pathetic love interest in the form of Claire (Ashley Williams) who has a crush with Ethan -- are both nothing more than unnecessary fillers that would work well for sitcom variety. Speaking of Ethan, Krasinski is least credible character to watch for. Never mind the fact that his role is underutilized the whole time, but whenever he emerges in the scene, he's clearly worthwhile. The best scene involving him is of course, the badminton game where he challenges Dex and Darcy to spill out nasty secrets whoever grabs a point.
Director Luke Greenfield, who previously helmed the gamely potential but ultimately lackluster 2004's romantic-comedy offering, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, doesn't do much to improve upon a cliched-ridden material here. Instead he prefers to stretch most of the scenes into an unnecessary length before they get repetitive from time to time. The ending is especially disappointing the most, which feels largely unsatisfying the way how things are wrapped up between Rachel, Darcy and Dex. You'll be left frustrated for its drawn-out resolution.