After reading the reviews for this film, most of which were, to put it nicely, largely negative, I came under the impression that this movie was going to be the cinematic equivalent of being forced to watch someone kill your dog right after they were done eating your firstborn child. But after looking at the cover of the DVD package and seeing the films two leading ladies (one of whom is one of my favorite actresses) smiling and looking heart-breakingly radiant, I thought to myself, could the film really be THAT bad? <br /><br />The answer to that question: Yes...and no.<br /><br />Make no mistake about it: Bride Wars is a complete and utter piece of celluloid trash. It's both a poorly-scripted attempt at satirizing the Bridezilla phenomenon and a poorly-scripted fable about the unbreakable bonds of true friendship. It's told with one-dimensional characters and enough clichés to fill the Grand Canyon.<br /><br />So, why don't I find myself hating this film as much as I should be? The sad truth is, there is just enough good about this film to make me realize that there is a truly hilarious comedy buried somewhere in this mess of a film.<br /><br />The biggest problem I have with this film is its insistence on trying to come off at times as being a semi-serious film about friendship and the perils of romance. The fact is, the writing and performances in this film are simply not strong enough for anyone to take the film's periodic attempts at being earnest seriously, especially after considering how over-the-top the actions of the two main characters are.<br /><br />Which segues into the other major problem I have with this movie. The screenwriters were pulling their punches far too often with the comedy; as if they were too afraid of being so over-the-top that nobody would take their film seriously. The fact is, no one was rightly going to watch a film titled "Bride Wars" expecting it to be sincere, heartwarming social commentary. While some critics have, understandably, harshly condemned this movie for making its main characters seem like shallow caricatures who are disturbingly obsessed with the superficial aspects of their respective weddings, I believe that these criticisms are overblown and assume too much about the apparent progressiveness of our society. The fact is, humans can be absurdly obsessed with the superficial at times, and just because this movie overblows this concept a bit does not automatically make the film wrong just because the main characters happen to be women.<br /><br />That said, this movie was at its best when it was at its most over-the-top. For example, seeing Anne Hathaway's character walk around the busy streets of New York with a beyond-gaudy pumpkin-orange tan as a result of a prank pulled by Kate Hudson's character was goofy and fun, and I think that the writers could have done more with that circumstance than what they conjured up. The same could be said about a number of other parts in the film where the main characters were acting spiteful towards each other, such as Hudson and Hathaway's showdown at the bachelorette party and the climactic cat-fight between the two during the wedding ceremony. Both scenes were well-conceived but ultimately came up short in terms of just how fun they wound up being, especially after considering the comedic talents of both Hudson and Hathaway. <br /><br />I can only wonder just how crazy these scenes and others in the movie could have been had the writers had enough guts to admit to themselves that the insanity in the film was its best aspect, gone for broke, and made the feud between the two ladies truly rambunctious and demented. This unwillingness to be truly zany extends to the characters themselves, as the writers are either unable or unwilling to let the characters embrace their inner caricature to a point in which the film's comedy might have taken flight.<br /><br />For what it's worth, Hudson and Hathaway (both of whom are shot by the cinematographer in a manner that makes them glow a bit) do the best they can with what they have to work with, with Hathaway's performance a bit more well-rounded due to her character actually being given a chance to develop somewhat. The chemistry between the two is a bit hit-and-miss, but generally they play off each other pretty well. Her annoying voice-over narration of the film aside, Candice Bergen does a decent job with her control-freak wedding planner character, while Kristen Johnston's performance as Hathaway's lousy co-worker is memorable mainly for being irritating and unfunny. The rest of the performances in the movie are thankless and forgettable.<br /><br />When all is said and done, the film's insistence on not embracing its inner cartoon winds up costing it dearly in the fun department. What results is a bland, inoffensive chick flick that, at best, might make a decent rental for a young bride or bride-to-be willing to stomach its saccharine sentimentality and its half-baked characters and attempts at humor.