I like both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson but Bride Wars is offensive, simplistic and mundane. Marketed as a romantic comedy, the film directed by Gary Winick (13 Going on 30, Tadpole) and written by Greg Depaul (Saving Silverman), Casey Wilson (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) and June Diane Raphael (I can’t believe it took three people to write this script), has no real genuinely funny moments. And a message so blatantly sexist that you might think women have never thought about anything more than their wedding day, let alone run for President of the United States. According to this movie, the thing women aspire to most in the world is to get married–ah, but not just any wedding will do, it’s got to be an insanely lavish, expensive one, no matter the cost.
Hudson and Hathaway star as Liv and Emma, lifelong best friends who have always dreamed of having June weddings at New York’s Plaza Hotel. In fact, weddings and more specifically, June-weddings-at-the-Plaza in particular are evidently the only subjects that interest them, or at least it’s the only thing the movie shows them discussing. Liv is a high powered lawyer while Emma is a meek middle school teacher. The two friends get engaged just days apart and they both rush to secure the services of New York’s most sought after wedding planner (Candace Bergen), who also doubles as the film’s narrator. Initially, everything is fine as the girls are booked on separate days in June and will serve as each other’s maid of honor. Whoops! As it turns out, due to a clerical error, both brides have had their weddings booked at the Plaza for the same day. Unfortunately, that’s the only date available; otherwise, the hotel is booked solid for several years. Neither woman will change their wedding date and the war is on.
Of course, if their such good friends, a sane adult woman would say, “One of them will have to be married at the Plaza in May or July instead or perhaps stick with June but get married elsewhere.” However, neither of these women act remotely sane or grown up. The only rational adults in the whole film are their fiancées, whose views are ignored or derided. (They quickly learn to stay out of it and let their fiancées duke it out.)
No matter what the circumstances, neither woman will change their wedding date. As a result, these lifelong friends see no other option then to sabotage each other’s preparations. It’s not enough that neither will be able to attend the other’s nuptials because they’ll be occurring simultaneously. They must also make the other woman miserable. Because apparently that’s what best friends do.
One spreads a rumor that the other is pregnant. One secretly dyes the others hair blue; one ruins the other’s spray-on tanning session. One tries to trick the other into getting too fat for her Vera Wang dress. Through it all, both women are appalled that the other would stoop so low. Emma goes so far as to say she doesn’t know why the marriage-preparation process isn’t as fun as she dreamed it would be. Maybe it’s because your best friend is now your sworn enemy and you’ve turned into a couple of Bridezilla’s? Just a thought…
These two women are so shallow and unlikable, I imagine most viewers won’t care whether either of them makes it down the aisle or not (I know I didn’t). Further, I think Bride Wars was just a bad career choice on the part of Anne Hathaway. With a recent Oscar nomination for Rachel Getting Married, I tend to think her career is on a serious upswing. However, given the fact that Kate Hudson also produced this dreck and she hasn’t really starred in anything decent since, well, Almost Famous back in 2000, you have to start wondering about her box office credibility.
Bride Wars comes to Blu-ray with a quality 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. The transfer offers solid detail throughout most of the movie; up-close shots of the lace on the wedding dresses reveal intricate textures; the girls’ flowing hair stands out nicely, too, each strand seemingly visible in close-up shots. Outdoor cityscapes are also nicely detailed. The interior shots of Emma’s school look a bit flat, though in its defense the setting appears naturally pedestrian and uninteresting. Colors in such scenes and throughout the movie, however, are sufficient, particularly the blues of the lockers and trim that adorn the school’s hallways. Flesh tones take on a rosy appearance in most instances. The print is practically blemish-free with only one or two small white speckles noticed, and the image is nicely rendered on Blu-ray with a quality cinematic look and feel, finished off by a noticeable but unobtrusive layer of grain.
Bride Wars features a quality DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Rich, satisfying music accompanies the opening credits with a small bit of rear channel support playing against the crisp, delightful, and incredibly clear presentation across the front, with a good, thick layer of bass thrown in for good measure. The film is primarily dialogue-centric, the soundtrack highly typical of films of this sort. Dialogue is presented without any discernible hiccups, and considering the inherent qualities of the track, this lossless offering sounds about as good as one might expect of it.
This Blu-ray does have quite a few special features in its three disc set:
Disc one begins with Something Old, Something New, and What That’s Gonna Cost You, a pop-up trivia track that keeps tabs on Liv’s and Emma’s wedding expenses (including a few “miscellaneous” items meant to make their weddings extra-memorable) as well as some basic facts on weddings and marital custom history. Next up are a collection of seven deleted and alternate scenes (1080p, 7:04) and two improvisations (1080p, 2:47). Meet Me at the Plaza (1080p, 6:47) is a very brief piece that looks at the use of the famous New York Plaza as a central location and plot device in the film. The Perfect White Dress (1080p, 4:37) examines the importance of the wedding dress to modern matrimony with particular emphasis on the dresses of designer Vera Wang. In Character With Kate Hudson (480p, 2:14) and In Character With Anne Hathaway (480p, 3:23) feature the actresses discussing their characters in the film. Man Den (1080p, 4:13) is a comical piece showing how the men of the movie cope with being in a Chick Flick and their attempts to remain manly in the midst of the experience. Maid of Honor (1080p, 4:23) looks at how a man tackles a role usually reserved for a lady. Amanda-Cam (1080p, 4:14) features the not-so-happy character sharing words of wisdom with the brides-to-be and remembering the night of the wedding while in a drunken stupor.
Disc two of this three-disc set features a standard-definition DVD copy of the film, presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Bonus features on this disc include carryovers from the Blu-ray: three deleted scenes (3:47) and The Perfect White Dress (4:38).
Disc three contains a digital copy of Bride Wars.
