Bride Wars

Have you ever wanted to walk into a restaurant and scream “I’m engaged!!!”? If so, this is just the film for you.

Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) were two little girls from New Jersey who once got taken to the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, where they happened to see a wedding taking place. From that moment they shared a dream: to have a wedding, in June, at the Plaza.

Now grown up, Emma is a middle school teacher (caring and put upon) and Liv is a highly paid executive (cool and together). They are still best friends, and when their boyfriends both decide to propose it’s time for the girly screaming to begin.

Off they go to see the wedding planner (Candice Bergen), who offers them a choice of dates for the Plaza. But, through a terrible clerical error, they have both been given the same day! And they can’t change it! They are each desperate to hang onto their dream, neither is willing to change the venue and the insults start to fly. As their friendship breaks down, each one begins to look for ways to sabotage the other’s wedding.

There are so many ways to sabotage a wedding. If you’re a non-screamer you may be thinking dress, cake, flowers. If you’re a screamer you will know about the music, the video, the dance lessons, the “keeping the date” cards and “presenting your couple style to the world”. If only this were all fiction. Since it isn’t, one might as well have fun with it, and with a title like this you know pretty much what to expect.

This is all about the two girls. The men have little to do but stand around looking perplexed, as well they may. There are scarcely any family members, and the girlfriends seem to exist just to be jealous, both those who haven’t been proposed to and those already married, because this isn’t about lives or relationships, it’s about The Big Day.

Hathaway and Hudson perform as well as they need to, though Hathaway is definitely the sparkier of the two. Kristen Johnston (Third Rock From The Sun) provides some welcome relief as the acerbic colleague and helper.

I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment by telling you that Liv and Emma learn something about themselves and you wouldn’t care anyway. The film begins and ends with the sort of honeyed voice-over which is meant to give us a nice warm glow. It’s a frothy, girly movie and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

I sincerely hope there won’t be a sequel: Baby Wars.