Something Borrowed

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, Colin Egglesfield, John Krasinski, Ashley Williams
Directed by: Luke Greenfield
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Ginnifer Goodwin) falls in love with her best friend's (Kate Hudson) fiance (Colin Egglesfield).

Review:

Tim: I'm quite frankly a bit shocked that I rather enjoyed this critically-reviled romantic dramedy. The reviews for the film have been almost completely negative. And yet, despite them, I still had a fun time watching this film. For some reason, the fact that there weren't a whole lot of likeable characters worked for me. I felt like this movie created some lose-lose situations. It didn't feel quite as Hollywood to me as many other romantic comedies. Sure, the movie ends in fairly predictable, cliched fashion, but the build up was a bit more complex than usual.

In most romantic comedies, it's pretty obvious what we're supposed to want to happen. It's identified early on who "the girl" and who "the guy" are, and then it's simply a matter of watching them navigate the ups and downs of life and love until they get together in the end. Things are much more complicated in Something Borrowed. The main woman, Ginnifer Goodwin, falls in love with her best friend's fiance. This creates a fairly complex love triangle. What makes things more complicated is the awful choice they make to have sex. Now, our movie heroine has cheated with the man her best friend in the world is set to marry. I liked that the movie challenged the audience. Did we want them to get together? We're trained to look down on cheaters, and yet, in this case, the two cheaters actually seem better suited for each other than the couple ready to be married. I felt myself being torn back and forth on what was the right course of action. That usually doesn't happen in these cookie cutter movies.

The cast wasn't great, but they were interesting. I don't believe Ginnifer Goodwin is a strong enough actress to carry a film like this. There were moments throughout the film when I thought she did a poor job acting. Overall, I felt like she gave an unmemorable, lackluster performance. She did have enough strong moments to keep me interested, but if Goodwin is the future of romantic comedies, I'm going to be pretty bummed. Kate Hudson was way too over-the-top, but there was something mesmerizing about her ridiculous performance. While I didn't like it, I admire her going all out. I thought Colin Egglesfield was fine, but didn't do anything special. I really loved John Krasinski in this film. I admit I'm already a fan, but he easily gave the best performance in the film and elevated the entire production with his presence. He was very, very good in a bit of a thankless role. Ashley Williams added in a few funny moments as well. While the cast didn't do a great job overall, I was surprisingly into the story.

I admit this movie is a bit sappy and everything is wrapped up too neatly at the end. However, it was still interesting to me and I enjoyed watching the various characters and their storylines come to a conclusion. I didn't love the movie at all and acknowledge its faults, but I don't think it was as bad as most people claimed. Something Borrowed certainly isn't a genre classic, but it did enough to entertain me.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, He's Just Not That Into You, Bride Wars