Watchable comedy with Hudson and Hathaway as childhood best friends who end up fighting because each wants to get married on a certain date at New York City’s famous Plaza Hotel. That’s the plot, folks. Predictable script relies on the actors to put it over, and they get away with it. Hudson’s a shark-in-training law associate; Hathaway’s a barely-making-it middle-school teacher regularly taken advantage of by a wacky colleague (Johnston, late of Third Rock from the Sun, obviously playing a “character”).
Bergen, as the high-end wedding planner, works her now-standard supporting role of imperious tall blonde WASP matriarch figure. She always seems to be talking out of one side of her mouth, literally; I wonder if there was some plastic surgery procedure gone wrong, Candy. The three men in the movie (the two fiancés and Hudson’s brother) are nice but inconsequential: the movie’s about the gals. Best scene is the bachelorette party where Hathaway shows her stripper-pole moves. (Come to think of it, she was impressive in that “spontaneous” musical number with Hugh Jackman at the Oscars.) Director Winick helmed 13 Going on 30 so he knows his way around this kind of material. My review copy was the 3-disc set with Blu-ray, DVD and digital versions; I like that you get the choice of format, but the Blu-ray disc has almost all the extras. Bride Wars won’t win Oscar nominees Hudson and Hathaway any awards, but it’s a pleasant-enough 90 minutes to show at your own bridal shower.