Something Borrowed ~ worth borrowing

Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Darcy (Kate Hudson) have been friends since childhood. They’ve shared everything, thick or thin, they’ve been there for each other until Rachel went to law school and met Dex.  Dex (Colin Egglesfield) is a dreamy guy who seems too good to be true. Rachel and Dex hit it off and quickly go down the path of a blossoming romance, well at least that’s what Dex thought, but Rachel cannot get over one thing, she’s a door mat. Rachel’s lack of self-esteem allows her true-love to fall through her fingertips and into the lap of her best friend Darcy, a self-centered girl use to getting her own way.  

Now, ten years later, Darcy and Dex are set to be married and Rachel finds herself a little too tipsy at her surprise birthday party thrown by Darcy. The old sparks ignite and Rachel wakes up with her best friend’s fiancé, Dex, in her bed. Romance and loyalty collide as she finds out Dex has always loved her, but felt Rachel was setting him up with Darcy those many years back. The two try to make sense of their rekindled passion as Darcy, stuck in her own world, plans her wedding oblivious of what’s going on. Ethan (John Krasinski), a lifelong friend of Rachel and Darcy, tries to provide guidance to a confused Rachel.

I felt this movie was funny and it scored well on the wife ”mushiness meter.” As with a lot of movies about missed romantic opportunities and hidden feelings, there are many cute moments and times when you as the audience get frustrated with “just tell the damn truth” but that would kill the movies vibe. Ethan, the friend from childhood really steals the show and I thoroughly enjoyed his part, even with the inevitable revelation that he has always been in love with one of the two women. (I aint gonna tell!)

The only problem I had with the movie is how they portray Dex, the confused fiancé who has always been in love with Rachel, and is only having the wedding to keep his parents happy. For I guy who is realizing his long lost Rachel actually loved him back, he’s awfully comfortable in playing the happy fiancé with Darcy, even in front of Rachel. He becomes the typical scum-bag guy cheating on his fiancé making stupid mistakes and acting desperate at times to not get caught.

The ending (yes it’s a strange, yet happy one) seems a little too convent a way to make the now unloyal life-long best friend seem less of a heel by sleeping with Dex. It seems like the director tried too hard to make everyone at the end of the movie not such a bad person for all of their misdeeds, and to me it didn’t work. I don’t know if the book it is based on had the same ending, but it would have been a “downer” if it was.  

All that being said, it is a good movie to watch with your significant other and will create some good discussion on your next night out with other couples, so go rent it!