In Bride Wars Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway plays childhood best friends Liv and Emma whose lifelong dream is to be the perfect June bride, with the perfect husbands, wearing the perfect Vera Wang gown at The Plaza.
Hudson and Hathaway bring their characters deftly to life. Liv is competitive and aggressive and squeezes a proposal out of her groom to be when she learns that Emma is engaged. Emma is passive to the point of letting people take advantage of her generosity. But oddly enough their friendship remains strong and beautiful. That is, until the hotel books their wedding on the same date and the bride wars ensue.
The film contains a few funny sequences spread here and there: Emma turning orange and Liv getting blue hair the week before their wedding and a dance off involving a male stripper. Fortunately -maybe unfortunately since they are very funny - the film does not linger on these sequences. Instead the focus is continually brought back to where it all started - Liv and Emma's friendship.At the heart of the story, of all the plotting and sometimes ridiculous sabotaging, is a friendship that's even more beautiful than most marriages. The writers know that this is the film's core and they never truly lose sight of this foundation.
Although it must be said that it requires a suspension of disbelief, quite a lot actually to believe that both brides-to-be can afford such extravagances such as a Vera Wang dress, beautiful flowers, the most expensive venue in town, a 7-tier cake etc. Also, it's a bit insulting to women that these two have been waiting for nothing but the wedding of the century all their lives. there must be something more than this.
The ending is unexpected and could have gone the other way around - cheesy and melodramatic. Like Liv and Emma who discover something deeper than the perfect wedding, so do we find a gem of a movie beneath the chic flick packaging of girly gowns and shoes. So kudos to the film's writers for taking risks with a surprising and justified ending that is not so heart warming and not vomit inducing.
The movie's loopholes are saved by the solid performances given by Hathaway and Hudson.
I give this movie a C+.
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