Saturday, May 21, 2011

Movie Review: Something Borrowed

UPDATE: My Something Borrowed post came back! Woo! Thanks, Blogger!
 
So I just got home from watching this movie and I have to vent. To be considered a valid movie critic I should probably wait [probably] and put some objective thought into this, but nah, we are just going to go with what comes to mind.

Totally not worth the almost two hour run time. [I know, I know. I regularly watch movies with much longer run times. The thing is, they are actually good. So there, take that Hollywood.]

Rachel is in love with Dex for years but he is going to marry her best jerk-of-a-friend Darcy. Thanks to an overabundance of alcohol, Dex finds out that Rachel likes him and he tells her that he likes her back. Well, what do you know? Thus, the plot of the movie revolves around Rachel and Dex trying to figure out this thing [I am not even going to dignify whatever they have with the term "relationship"] while keeping Darcy in the dark. Meanwhile, Darcy has her own secrets and Johnathan Krasinski plays Rachel's other best friend who has his own flame.

Flaws:

  1. Rachel plays the victim the whole movie. Enough with the "woe is me" crap. Grow a backbone, woman!
  2. Rachel constantly enables Darcy's narcissism. It begins to drag on after awhile.
  3. Darcy is a jerk without a soul who only likes to party. I can handle jerks as long as there is some explanation. No one becomes a jerk just because. There is always a reason and it's lazy screenwriting to not go into it.
  4. Dex is passive, personality-less, and cowardly. [Albeit, he is attractive. This is his only strength in the entire movie.] Seriously man, be a man.
  5. Way too much sex for the sake of sex without any meaning.
  6. Rachel ends up with the wrong guy. [Strictly a matter of opinion, but hey, it's my blog.]
  7. I hate the best friend love story. Breaks my heart every  time.
Strengths:

  1. John Krasinski is really the only likable character. However, he has his own flaws, which in the end work in his favor. He isn't perfect but he is a heck of a lot better than the rest of the characters.
  2. Like I mentioned earlier, Dex is attractive. That is his only strength. Except, over the course of the movie he loses man-points by failing to stand up to his fiance, chase his dreams, go after the girl he actually loves, admit his real feelings, to stand up to his parents, etc, etc. What does Rachel see in him? Only heaven knows, really, at this point. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know why she likes the man.
Summary:

I knew from the get-go that this movie wasn't garnering rave reviews, so I pretty much got what I asked for. Still, it had such potential if only it was completely different...

P.S: I spent the whole movie trying to figure this out, but what exactly is the "something borrowed" that the title referred to? I realize that this movie is based on a book [it's definitely not on the "to-read" list] with the same title, but really, it doesn't make any sense. I get that it is referencing the whole "something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new" wedding tradition but either I missed the borrowed metaphor or it was completely absent which is another example of bad writing. Trust me, it's all in the hand of the writers.

2 comments:

  1. I think the something borrowed was supposed to be the lame fiance. Not that she actually gives him back. (Spoiler!) I totally agree with your review. Meagan and I were hoping that they wouldn't end up together because you don't really want them to get what they want.

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  2. I know, right?! I was hoping she would find someone better. Because, even though Dex was cute, there was nothing there.

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