Made Of Honor

Year of Release: 2008
Genre: Comedy / Romance
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language.
Director: Paul Weiland
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Kadeem Hardison, Chris Messina, Richmond Arquette, Busy Phillips, Sydney Pollack,

Date Of Review: May 2008

With “Made Of Honor” TV heartthrob Patrick Dempsey gets his first opportunity to headline a major Hollywood production since his 1980s hey-day of hit teen movies.  It was 1987 when I first saw Patrick Dempsey in “Can’t Buy Me Love” and I have been somewhat of a fan ever since. About 2 years later in 1989 I remember standing in a cinema foyer looking at a massive life-size standee promoting his new film “Loverboy”. Still enthusiastic about my “Can’t Buy Me Love” experience I immediately wanted to see this new film. Sadly, when “Loverboy” did eventually screen at my local cinema it was met with a lukewarm reception and it was in and out of the theatre within a week. Having missed it during its brief run, I did eventually catch up with “Loverboy” on video later that year and I must say I enjoyed the film but not as much as “Can’t Buy Me Love”. The 1990s were a muddling time period for Dempsey with very few of his films getting big screen exposure, the exception being “Mobsters” (1991), a Young Guns style gangster flick and couple of supporting role appearances in films such as “With Honors” (1994) starring Joe Pesci and “Outbreak” (1995) starring Dustin Hoffman. If you were a fan of Dempsey’s in the 90s you rarely got to see him in a big screen film as most of his work ended up direct to TV or video.

In 2000 I was surprised to see Dempsey included in the cast list for “Scream 3”. However, he was omitted from the poster and was given very little publicity for his role as a detective investigating a series of teenage murders. Nevertheless, it was still a fairly substantial role in a big screen film but if you didn’t know who he was you may have not even noticed him. In 2002 his career received a comeback of sorts after been given a prominent role opposite Reese Witherspoon in the romantic comedy “Sweet Home Alabama”. Once again, Dempsey was omitted from the movie poster but popped up in the trailer and he received positive word of mouth for his performance. With things on the up and up Dempsey got the career re-birth he was looking for in 2005 with “Grey’s Anatomy”, where he scored the part of Dr. Derek Shepherd (aka McDreamy) on what quickly became one of the most popular TV doctor series of all-time. Now with a career boost, Dempsey was soon dubbed in various magazine publications as “The sexiest man on Television”, something he continually shrugs aside. In no time at all Dempsey was again in high demand and it seems he was destined to hit the big screen once more.  In 2007 Dempsey was on a winner playing the role of Prince Charming opposite Amy Adams in the Walt Disney fantasy flick “Enchanted”.

Now in 2008, nearly 20 years after I saw the cinema standee for “Loverboy”, Dempsey’s life-size image is back and displayed once again on standees in cinema foyers around the world, this time promoting his new romantic comedy “Made Of Honor”. I am sure that it won’t be another 20 years before we see him pop up again on a cinema standee. Not many actors get a second bite at the cherry and it’s something that is truly remarkable.  It’s amazing that Dempsey at 42 years of age has managed to keep his looks and hair helmet intact to such a point that he is still able to play characters much younger than his age. In “Made Of Honor” Dempsey plays a 30 something guy with ease and is totally believable. The film even pushes the age envelope further when it kicks off with a scene showing Dempsey 10 years earlier (circa 1998), playing a young 20 something college guy. It’s a feat in itself to see him, with a slight hair-change and a close shave get away even with this scene.  It seems that Dempsey’s boyish looks will continue to serve him well in leading man roles for a few more years yet.

Being a Patrick Dempsey fan since the 1980s my anticipation for “Made Of Honor” was quite high. As it turns out the film is a gender switch or role reversal of the Julia Roberts comedy “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997). It’s also not unlike a male version of “27 Dresses” (2008) of which Dempsey’s “Grey’s Anatomy” co-star Katherine Heigl recently scored a hit with. In “Made Of Honor”, Tom and Hannah (Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan) have been friends since college, Tom lives somewhat of a Playboy lifestyle and has no real intentions of settling down anytime in the near future. Hannah on the other hand has just found love in the form of a Scottish aristocrat (Kevin McKidd), whom she meets while on a working holiday. When Hannah asks Tom to be her “Maid” Of Honor, Tom for the first-time in his life realizes that he is in fact in love with Hannah. He is now afraid of losing her and realizes that sometimes your true love is closer than what you think. Tom reluctantly agrees to be the “Maid” of Honor but decides to use his newfound status in the bridal party to win her back.

After a rather rocky setup the film redeems itself in the conventional romantic comedy sense. You get what you expect in this stock standard romance with all the usual trappings. It is straight-forward, predictable and ultimately succeeds in being the feel-good film that it sets out to be.  However, I somehow find the feel good aspects of it a little hard to digest within the confines of the Dempsey character. He is so flawed that it is hard to accept that Monaghan would waste her time with him. Although not shown, the implications are there that Dempsey has been with countless women over the last 10 years. To coin a term used in the millennium, most notably in the “Deuce Bigalow” films Dempsey’s character is nothing more than a “Man Whore”.  This not only cheapens Dempsey’s character but also detracts from their potential chemistry on screen. This is a script issue and not a performance issue as Dempsey and Monaghan are quite good in their roles.  The bottom-line is the believability factor of the film and thus its credibility is diminished as it is difficult to accept that after 10 years of Dempsey’s shenanigans that Monaghan would still be friends with him, let alone interested in marrying him. If you can get past that, then you will probably get the most out of this film.  

On a similar note, Sydney Pollack’s role as Dempsey’s lothario father proves that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I found all of Pollack’s moments rather cringe-worthy, I don’t know what the scriptwriters were thinking when they penned out his role but somehow it all went goo-goo. One sequence in particular, where Pollack is negotiating a pre-nup agreement (sexual frequency) with his soon to be wife, only moments before walking down the aisle was a real low-point in the film. In this sequence the sleaze factor is on high and it just doesn’t work other than to have a bad overflow effect which further stains your perception of Dempsey’s already tarnished character.

Many internet sources indicate that the film does not make clear what Dempsey’s character does for a living. Although it is not obviously spelt out, it is hinted at, on what it might be, on a couple of occasions. Apparently from what I gather, Dempsey is the inventor of the coffee collar or paper cup sleeve, the cardboard thing that goes around the cup to absorb the heat so that you can hold it with ease. It seems that Dempsey’s character gets paid royalties for each one that is used. That’s why in an early scene he offers a lady in a coffee shop one and in a later scene he promises a horse owner a small percentage of its royalty if he lets him borrow his horse. In reality, the paper cup sleeve must have been invented by somebody but I don’t think his name was Tom.

Let’s get things straight, romantic comedies are often a mixed bag of sorts for both critics and audiences.  Whether they are enjoyed or not can depend on a number of factors, gender, marital status, age, mood you are in when you watch it and of course who you see it with. Sadly, “Made Of Honor” isn’t one of the best of the genre but it’s not a bad effort.  For me it’s a 50 / 50 split, there are as many positives as there are negatives. The film is a little dry and definitely lacks a laugh-out-loud quotient but despite its problems with script and characterizations it is nevertheless light, fluffy and full or romantic froth, a pleasant way to spend 100 minutes or so. Finally, “Made Of Honor”, might not bubble with originality and certainly doesn’t soar to any great heights but it’s a film that keeps you entertained right through to the very end mainly because of the likeability of the leads. Dempsey definitely suits the romantic comedy genre and I hope he makes more films of this type.

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