Something's missing from 'Something Borrowed'
If only Rachel had listened to the lyrics of John Mayer's “Say” (“Say what you need to say”) a few times. If so, she could have avoided all the conflict, hurt and guilt that comes with bedding down her best friend's fiance just weeks before their wedding.
But she didn't, because “Say” isn't on the soundtrack of Luke Greenfield's “Something Borrowed.” Alex Wurman's cloying piano-tinkle score is, and it incessantly pleads for us to like these characters as they hide in their corners of a romantic triangle.
Years ago in law school, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Dex (Colin Egglesfield) became friends and study partners, but both were too shy to declare their true feelings for each other.
Rachel's domineering, party girl best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson) moves in on the available Dex and easily sweeps him over by the sheer force of her personality.
Now, on the night of Rachel's 30th birthday party, just weeks away from Dex and Darcy's wedding, oh, oh!
A tipsy Rachel admits her crush on Dex, who wastes no time taking Rachel to the dance of the wild bunnies.
Clearly, Rachel and Dex were meant to be together. But Darcy is Rachel's best friend since childhood, and Dex's dad expects him to do what he should, not what he wants. What will they do?
The first half of “Something Borrowed,” based on the novel by Naperville native Emily Giffin, promises a better comic romantic drama than the second half delivers.
Most of the action — captured in warm, glowing images by Charles Minsky's widescreen lens — centers around Rachel and Dex sneaking around with their clandestine affair, trying to figure out what to do while the countdown to the wedding looms in the background like a soap opera version of “High Noon.”
The supporting cast considerably lightens up the conniving and back stabbing.
Rachel's confidante and not-so-secret admirer Ethan (John Krasinski, who's so comically engaging that this movie should have been all about him) mostly exists to provide funny reaction shots and pithy observations. (“The Hamptons are a zombie movie directed by Ralph Lauren!” he muses.)
He pretends to be gay to avoid the attentions of Darcy's sexually aggressive friend Claire (Ashley Williams in a thankless role).
Meanwhile, Dex's best pal Marcus (Steve Howey), a predatory chauvinist, cracks vulgar pickup lines, then wonders why they don't work.
Why are these people together? Nobody seems to match up in the movie. Would Dex really hang out with Marcus? What keeps the Darcy and Claire relationship real?
Hudson's terse, bullishly self-centered Darcy never lets up, and it's difficult to imagine that Dex would hitch his matrimonial wagon to someone this extreme and pushy for the long haul.
The Rachel/Darcy best friend bond feels slightly more realistic, with Rachel's recessive personality linked to the outgoing Darcy as a form of social symbiosis.
Nonetheless, many of the actions committed by the characters in “Something Borrowed” are simply selfish and off-putting in a movie that poses excellent questions about the nature of romance, trust and friendship, then mumbles the answers.
“Love makes you the person you want to be,” Rachel chirps, “not the person you are!”
She may have finally said what she needed to say, but it wasn't something we needed to hear.
<b>“Something Borrowed”</b>
“Something Borrowed”
★ ★ ½
<b>Starring: </b>Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, Colin Egglesfield, Ashley Williams, Steve Howey
<b>Directed by: </b>Luke Greenfield
<b>Other: </b>A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG-13 for drug use, language, sexual situations. 103 minutes.