This is a film of people who look like other people. Ginnifer Goodwin (learn to spell your name properly, girl!) Looks like what Sally Field would have looked like if she hadn't looked like a cartoon, Colin Egglesfield looks like Tom Cruise-lite, Kate Hudson looks like her mother, and John Krasinski looks like UK TV person Andrew O'Connor.
Once you get past that, you have to get past the fact that this isn't a romcom, as it has been sold in the trailer, it is simply a rom.
Darcy (Hudson) and Rachel (Goodwin) have been best friends since childhood. Rachel is gentle, submissive, and always puts Darcy first, and Darcy is pushy, assertive, and always puts Darcy first, too. In law school, Rachel falls for Dex. Just as she is about to dip her toes into relationship waters, Darcy muscles in and overwhelms the fledgling feelings they have for each other. Some years later, when Darcy and Dex are getting married in the near future, the feelings Rachel and Dex have always had for each other finally emerge, and the dilemma is what to do now? The main other featured characters are Ethan (Krasinski), Rachel's best friend (who is himself in love with her but doesn't declare it until late in the film), Claire (Ashley Williams), who nurses an un-reciprocated yearning for Eathan, and Marcus (Steve Howey), an ignorant promiscuous oaf.
This is firmly in chickflick territory and is amiable enough without ever seriously addressing the moral dilemmas facing the main characters (this is Rachel's film, not Darcy's). In fact, it not only doesn't face those dilemmas, it gives the main characters an easy exit route by compromising Darcy's morals, so it does not succeed as a drama and, despite some smiles, it is not (as already indicated) a comedy. And, while the movie is mildly likable, I found myself looking at the main characters and thinking:
Rachel is an absolute doormat, and brings her misery on herself;
Darcy is obnoxious, selfish, and pretty much a hateful, hateful person throughout the movie;
Dex is an indecisive wimp, dominated by his authoritarian father;
Ethan is as guilty of what he accuses Rachel of as she is and, as a character who is intended to be sympathetic, is deeply unpleasant throughout the film to both Darcy and Claire;
Claire (who gives good cause for Ethan to reject her constantly) exists within the film solely to deliver one line.
Marcus is no more than a plot device but, despite being deeply unappetising, is the only character where what you see is what you get.
I suppose there is an argument for saying that all these people display human frailties - indeed, which of us does not have one or more of the weaknesses they display? - but I found them irritating, particularly when mulling the film over after the fact.
I also found the ending unsatisfying. I wasn't at all sure that the right people got together for the right reasons or that relationships were resolved in ways I found realistic and/or believable.
Once you get past that, you have to get past the fact that this isn't a romcom, as it has been sold in the trailer, it is simply a rom.
Darcy (Hudson) and Rachel (Goodwin) have been best friends since childhood. Rachel is gentle, submissive, and always puts Darcy first, and Darcy is pushy, assertive, and always puts Darcy first, too. In law school, Rachel falls for Dex. Just as she is about to dip her toes into relationship waters, Darcy muscles in and overwhelms the fledgling feelings they have for each other. Some years later, when Darcy and Dex are getting married in the near future, the feelings Rachel and Dex have always had for each other finally emerge, and the dilemma is what to do now? The main other featured characters are Ethan (Krasinski), Rachel's best friend (who is himself in love with her but doesn't declare it until late in the film), Claire (Ashley Williams), who nurses an un-reciprocated yearning for Eathan, and Marcus (Steve Howey), an ignorant promiscuous oaf.
This is firmly in chickflick territory and is amiable enough without ever seriously addressing the moral dilemmas facing the main characters (this is Rachel's film, not Darcy's). In fact, it not only doesn't face those dilemmas, it gives the main characters an easy exit route by compromising Darcy's morals, so it does not succeed as a drama and, despite some smiles, it is not (as already indicated) a comedy. And, while the movie is mildly likable, I found myself looking at the main characters and thinking:
Rachel is an absolute doormat, and brings her misery on herself;
Darcy is obnoxious, selfish, and pretty much a hateful, hateful person throughout the movie;
Dex is an indecisive wimp, dominated by his authoritarian father;
Ethan is as guilty of what he accuses Rachel of as she is and, as a character who is intended to be sympathetic, is deeply unpleasant throughout the film to both Darcy and Claire;
Claire (who gives good cause for Ethan to reject her constantly) exists within the film solely to deliver one line.
Marcus is no more than a plot device but, despite being deeply unappetising, is the only character where what you see is what you get.
I suppose there is an argument for saying that all these people display human frailties - indeed, which of us does not have one or more of the weaknesses they display? - but I found them irritating, particularly when mulling the film over after the fact.
I also found the ending unsatisfying. I wasn't at all sure that the right people got together for the right reasons or that relationships were resolved in ways I found realistic and/or believable.