Something Borrowed

I dragged Shawn to watch Something Borrowed with me tonight, because I read the novel a few years ago and loved it. The film version doesn't do the novel justice at all (do film adaptations ever?), but it wasn't horrible. I felt like Ginnifer Goodwin made a pretty good Rachel; she captures that meek, good-hearted, goody-goody, "Ivory girl" really well. Goodwin is likeable and smart. But Kate Hudson as Darcy was really quite disappointing. In the novel, we really empathize with Rachel and we root for her and Dex from the beginning, because Darcy is such a self-absorbed, shallow, irresponsible, narcissistic bitch that we just want to see her go down. But there are aspects of Darcy's character that still make her human; she's competitive with Rachel, but still very loyal and supportive, and we can see why Rachel and Darcy are best friends. Kate Hudson as Darcy lacks dimension, and in the movie, we really wonder why the hell why Rachel even likes Darcy in the first place.

Similarly, Colin Egglesfield as Dex was really flat and bland, and we really don't see his personality in the film. Like, we can see that he's pretty good-looking, but why has Rachel been in love with him for so long? The only thing that makes up for these performances is John Krasinski's portrayal of Ethan, who is the voice of reason in this film. He's the only one who voices what everyone in the audience is thinking. We can see why he is more of a confidante to Rachel than Darcy is. Ashley Williams' character, Claire, was purely there for comical relief, since she doesn't really play that big a role in the novel. And I thought Steve Howey as Marcus ended up being way more immature and obnoxious than his novel counterpart. There were a lot of trivial scenes (including one where we see Emily Giffin herself sitting on a park bench, reading Something Blue, which is the sequel to Something Borrowed) that could have been edited out to give more of a back story to the film. That having been said, the movie itself was fairly entertaining. There were even a few parts in the film where I totally started tearing up. So, not worth paying full price, but maybe go on half-price Tuesdays. Or, you know, download a bootleg version.

Rating: 2.5/5