Bride Wars (2009)

Two best girlfriends go for each others throats after their weddings are booked on the same day. Some might say, big deal, share the day. But then you wouldn't have a series of scenes where the now former BFF's trade nasty pranks ending with one tackling the other from behind as she walks down the aisle.

That is the nasty little premise of Bride Wars a dull witted new comedy that provides the latest evidence of the career devolution of the once radiant Kate Hudson.

Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) have, since they were little girls, always dreamed of June weddings at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Emma has gone so far as to save every penny from her teen years to now just to pay for her dream wedding. Liv, in classic movie convention, is independently wealthy having grown up to be a lawyer.

Both girls have met the perfect guy and as they attend friends weddings they are just waiting for their lunkheaded beau's (Chris Pratt and Steve Howey) to get up the nerve to pop the question. Romantic Emma is surprised one night by her man just days after controlling Liv finds a ring in her apartment and forces her man into a proposal.

Things are in perfect order for two dream weddings at the Plaza as a high profile wedding planner (a slumming Candance Bergen) happens to have three openings in June, two on the same day, one 3 weeks later. While the girls think they have booked the seperate dates, the wedding planner botches things and the girls end up on the same date. And the hilarity begins..... or not.

Bride Wars is briskly paced and bubbly early on as we can sense the fun in this idea and the possibilities of these two talented actresses. But, it's not long before things begin to fall apart and once the girls have split up and are going after each other things turn from bubbly to brusque, from brisk to bludgeoning. A scene inside a burlesque club featuring a dance off is particularly brutal for Ms. Hathaway. Ms. Hudson on the other hand is well trained for awful material after How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days and My Best Friend's Girl. She is beyond humiliation at this point.

Under the direction of Gary Winick, who brought much charm to Charlotte's Web and 13 Going On 30, Bride Wars is so childish I wanted to hire a babysitter. What the movie desperately needs to balance the lunacy of Hudson and Hathaway's antics is one adult character. When none emerge the movie flips and flops about in demonstrations of nastiness that even tweenage girls will find childish.

Final

Anyone whose every tripped over the reality show Bridezilla on the WE Network knows there are big laughs to rend from the idea of crazed women in search of the perfect wedding. That Bride Wars is incapable of finding any of those laughs shows just how wildly inept the entire enterprise is. As for Kate Hudson, will the sadness ever cease? She radiated such beauty, charm and warmth in Almost Famous that one could not help but assume career greatness. The downward spiral of her career since is uttlerly baffling.

Can she get it back? Anything's possible but if Bride Wars shows anything, the commitment just isn't there.