Friday 8 July 2011

Something Borrowed


Case gone cold...

By her 30th birthday, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin), a dedicated attorney, bemoans the fact that love is not in her court. Her best friend Darcy (Jennifer Hudson), however, is closed to being married to Dex (Colin Egglesfield) whom Rachel met in law school. After a few drinks together Rachel confesses to Dex that she always had a crush on him which leads to both sleeping together. With Darcy's wedding not long away, Rachel finds herself in dubious territory.

Something Borrowed had the potential to be a multifaceted affair. On one hand it is your average romantic comedy and on the other it offers a portrayal of ethical issues surrounding love. It is a pity the latter is downplayed to a rather basic understanding of the issues. The narrative does its best to help the viewer identify with Rachel and it is not difficult to do so for the first third. She is the good girl who is studious and in love with a guy who she feels is too handsome for her, but loses him to her best friend who always has to be better than her. This sort of identification begins to fall away with Rachel's self pity, which is thankfully attacked by her long time friend Ethan (John Krasinski), and her rather willingness to engage in an affair. While the ending is not something new for the genre, it is quite surprising how the film appears to glorify the act of cheating to the point of it being acceptable. There are no dire consequences to actions and so the narrative becomes unfortunately one dimensional. That said, there is no denying the fun factor associated with the romantic comedy nature of the film so it is not all bad.

Thankfully, the actors do a decent enough job of keeping the story afloat. Goodwin and Egglesfield are perhaps not quite up to par with Hudson and Krasinski. This is easily due to Hudson having the most exciting role and Krasinski stealing scenes with his humour and charisma. This merely leaves the more romance orientated and weak dramas scenes for Goodwin and Egglesfield to wade through.


Considering the thematic elements expressed in the story, sexual content is fairly tame and without nudity. Violence is only really shown through a horror film being watched by some characters and language is on the tame side.

There is potential to push past the romantic comedy genre, but the story of Something Borrowed is light hearted to its detriment as the possible avenue to build a thought provoking tale is never really attempted. Additionally, not all of the actors are given the strongest material to work with and this becomes evident when the best scenes require particular characters. On a simple level Something Borrowed does work, but with such pressing issues alluded to early on in the story it is saddening that nothing comes of them: something blue indeed.



6/10

Screen date: 8 July 2011
Release date: 8 July 2011