Commitment-phobic protagonist, check.

Her/his best friend plans to marry someone other than said protagonist, check.

Protagonist is invited to be best man/maid of honour for the best friend despite being of the wrong gender, check.

Protagonist says, “Yes.” to sabotage the wedding and try to win back the best friend for herself/himself, check.

Line up Made of Honour, the latest romantic comedy to hit our screens and you practically see 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding, with Julia Roberts’ role played by Patrick Dempsey (Dr McDreamy of Grey’s Anatomy ) fame.

This chick flick is based on another clichéd storyline, brought to life with the staple elements of American humour but with a dash of warmth and meaning.

The Walk Down The Aisle

Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is a Casanova with a set of audacious rules governing the patterns of his sexploits, like ‘no back-to-backs’ and no family events, living off the fat royalties from his invention; the disposable coffee cup sleeve. He’s a chip off the old block of his serial husband Dad (Sydney Pollack) who marries and divorces pretty young things as fast as you can say, “Hugh Hefner!”

Tom’s best friend is high school pal Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), who works in a museum restoring paintings to their former glory.

When he’s not out there toying with women’s hearts, he’s hanging out with Hannah despite the disapproval of her mother (Kathleen Quinlan), bringing her coffee when she’s at work (though not resisting the urge to exchange numbers with girls at the coffee joints), going shopping for antiques with her and sharing desserts with her. They have the perfect platonic friendship… or so it seems.

Things get interesting after Hannah goes to Scotland for a 6-week long business trip. Tom, suffers from absence makes the heart grow fonder, suddenly realising he might actually love her. Egged on by his virile father and his gang of dudes, he decides to turn away from his lustful life and plans to ask Hannah to marry him.

But the bad karma he must have gained from those years of cheating on women comes back to bite him and Hannah’s found herself a fiancé. Colin (Kevin McKidd), a wealthy Scottish Duke-to-be whose family runs several whisky distilleries is any woman’s dream husband. The fact that his dear Hannah is about to be married hits a very stunned Tom like a whirlwind (as movie-goers would experience quite literally).

Hannah then drops another bomb; because Tom is her best friend, she wants him to be her Maid of Honour at her wedding.

When Tom recovers from the shock, he realises that the only way he can prevent himself from losing his true love is to accept the unconventional role and all the snide jokes that come with it, to try and pull off an inside job of stopping the marriage.

Not A Marriage Made In Heaven

The movie had UrbanWire in stitches with its daring visual humour, which include mini-kilts on McDreamy, sex-toy turned accessories on an oblivious Granny and the usual slapstick that has become so indispensable in American comedies such as Superhero Movie and The Hottie & The Nottie .

Made of Honour, being targeted primarily at women, has been criticised for many things: insensitive jokes about homosexuals, cheap toilet humour; and derogatory treatment of women.

But what most critics have missed out on in the wave of movie-bashing is that the movie is in fact mocking the superficiality with which most people nowadays view the ideas of love and marriage. For example, when Tom feels inferior to Colin after seeing the immense size of Colin’s member in the shower, the scriptwriters are simply poking fun at people’s inability to progress from the animalistic mentality that ‘bigger is better’.

Granted, Made Of Honour isn’t the most politically-correct movie, but that doesn’t mean that it’s all that bad.

In an era where people are more concerned about getting laid than settling down with the special someone they can’t live without, Made Of Honour makes at least some of the playboys out there ponder if what they’re doing is keeping them from the love of their life.

So what if Tom’s sleeping around with women who don’t mind waiting in line to be bedded seems to make women look bad? He redeems himself by saying, “Maybe there’s more to life than sleeping around.”

If people can’t see that the movie is really about treasuring those around you and that even the most promiscuous of us can find true love, then maybe they can’t see the forest for the trees.

UrbanWire gives Made of Honour 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Details

Opens: May 15

Movie Rating: PG

Running Time: 100 mins

Language: English with Chinese Subtitles

Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd

Director: Paul Weiland

Pictures courtesy of Columbia Pictures.