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This film is mildly entertaining, extremely forgettable and unable to make up its mind if it’s a buddy movie or a romantic comedy.
The finale, in particular, suffers from this genre dithering but, nevertheless, it might still be one to watch when it reaches DVD but driving to the theater, no matter how near you are is a definite no-no.
Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Darcy (Kate Hudson) have been friends since they were five, and Ethan (John Krasinski) joined the duo when they were 12.
Rachel introduced Darcy to Dex (Colin Eggersfield), her college friend, a few years previously, and the two have been inseparable ever since. Darcy throws Rachel a surprise 30th birthday party but has to leave early and at the end of the night Rachel finds herself alone with Dex. The two connect, Dex makes a move and the love triangle begins.
The back story of this film is that Rachel and Dex were madly attracted to each other in college, but both were too afraid to let the other one know. It’s possible this could have happened, of course, but it’s highly unlikely and when irritating flashbacks try and hammer this point home they intrude on a story that is already struggling to show the audience something they haven’t seen before.
Having said that, Darcy being an absolute bitch does make something of a change but at the same time leaves us wondering why Rachel and Dex have kept her in their lives for all these years. We also never really get Dex’s point of view on anything else and that is why this film fails as a rom-com.
The one thing that does work is the tension between the characters, it’s unclear who is going to end up with who, mainly because Dex is such an absolute wimp the audience won’t want Rachel, the underdog, to end up with someone so unworthy.
The plot seems to be leading us to a Rachel/Ethan match, and as Ethan’s the funny guy who steals the show and is also the rock on which Rachel leans, it makes the most sense. This scenario also leaves Darcy to languish with her wishy-washy fiancé and seeing the bad girl get hers is the perfect cherry for any fairy-tale ending.
It’s essential for this kind of film to send some kind of message but unfortunately the writer remains indecisive to the very end and has no comment to make about people who date their best friend’s boyfriend.
So the audience therefore has to draw its own conclusion and the only one that comes to mind is “don’t give supporting actors the only funny lines in the film because it makes everyone else, including the stars, look boring”.