Something Borrowed

Luke Greenfield

The story: Attorney Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) is the wallflower to Darcy’s (Kate Hudson) obnoxious Venus flytrap. Somehow though, they have remained best friends through the years and Darcy even met her husband-to-be Dex (Colin Egglesfield) through Rachel. Then one night, after having had too much to drink, Rachel ends up sleeping with Dex.

Ginnifer Goodwin is 33 but there is still something of the little-girl-lost look about her.

Best known for her turn as a Mormon wife in the television drama Big Love, she is well cast as Rachel, bringing a degree of vulnerability to a character who is something of a doormat.

It also means that we are firmly in her corner when Rachel slips up and sleeps with her best friend’s fiance.

The deck is further stacked in her favour when we learn, though a series of flashbacks, that there used to be a flickering attraction between Rachel and Dex back in law school.

Goodwin and Colin Egglesfield, from the long-running soap opera All My Children, make for a sweet couple and it is clear who is meant to end up with whom.

It never is a mystery in romantic comedies as to who is right for each other but the pleasure is in watching the characters get there.

The problem here is that the more the movie drags on, the less sympathetic Rachel and Dex become.

Taiwanese soaps are not the only culprits when it comes to characters who dither about without being able to make up their minds and take action.

The only one spouting some sense is Ethan, a long-time friend of Rachel and Darcy.

John Krasinski, from the TV comedy The Office, plays the platonic confidante and also serves up some laughs when he pretends to be gay to escape the attention of an over-zealous female admirer.

After all that set-up and build-up, the inevitable showdown between Rachel and Darcy is simply not very satisfying.

In a sign that her star is not shining quite as brightly after ho-hum romantic comedies such as Fool’s Gold (2008) and Bride Wars (2009), Hudson has been relegated to playing second fiddle here. And an unlikeable one at that.

Ideally, the film, based on the 2005 novel by Emily Giffin, would have explored in a more thoughtful manner the toxic relationship between the two frenemies.

But for that to happen, Darcy would need to be an actual character and not a convenient irritant.

(ST)