review: made of honour
Made of Honour is a romantic comedy featuring Michelle Monaghan and Patrick Dempsey. And yes you're thinking why im so free and im so free now cos later is a massive stayover and drinking session JEAH CANT WAIT! so since i've watched many movies so far let me go review some of them.
I've watched this movie twice. First is with Victoria at starbucks (i forgot how on earth we ended up there tht nite haha), and second was with Lucy, Mish and Victoria at Lucy's house after prom. I thought that i watched it twice, enough to be familiar with the show.
Basically it's centralled on the protagonist Tom Bailey (portrayed by Patrick Dempsey) and his relationship with his friend for over a decade, Hannah (portrayed by Michelle Monaghan). They were best friends and were shown to have a deep knowledge of each others' likes and dislikes, a unparralleled understanding towards each other although their lifestyles are vastly different: Tom is a player (though he had never had sex nor a relationship with Hannah), Hannah is a typical office-woman with a steady career looking for an equally steady relationship. They both have a unspoken and undiscussed and unexplored and unprobed romantic attraction to each other, but since they are friends they rather label themselves as that and go no further (this is portrayed by them in the movie before Hannah leaves). But Hannah takes a 6 week leave to go to Scotland for her job. And during this absence, Tom discovers that there was no one who could match Hannah the way she was and how well they could click with each other. But when Hannah returns he discovered she's engaged to a Duke called Collin and Hannah asks him to be her Maid of Honour. through a series of attempts and disappointments, he finally manage to win Hannah back from the man she was engaged to. Sorry for the long description, but I needed to explain it or else it will sound stupid.
First off, the story in general was good, well discussed and taken a good approach on focussing on Tom's problems and every action he takes to win Hannah back. The portrayal, too was excellent. It was the last 30 minutes of the show where it really showed. Monaghan's portrayal was downright accurate, Dempsey's acting constantly brings to mind his dillema and troubles ahead of him. The facial expressions and interactions between these 2 characters were excellent. you can literally write them in words like "why the hell am i kissing you im engaged and i shouldnt be doing this but i really love you but i cant think this way".
The entire film is centralled on the intially-independent-but-in-fact-interelated internal conflicts within and between Tom and Hannah. And of course, the friendly-but-flawless sidekick Collin. Characterization was colorful and varied, making it exciting and engaging. The slow change of Hannah's opinion towards Tom is sufficiently arranged, and the element of rivalry, though not superbly developed, was enough to appeal to the emotions and make it funny.
But talking about the story again, although it gains credibility by the sufficient presentation of the background between Hannah and Tom, it wasn't very realistic at the end as it comes off as too abrupt and a little too much of a comedy. Up to the point where Hannah and Tom kissed in the bar, the realism was high enough, but when Tom barged in to tell Hannah he loves her, though it is sweet and puts a fullstop, it put the fullstop when it word isnt complet. That i felt could have been better.
But in sum, this movie, i thought was a good movie, in a sense that it suceeded it's take as a romantic comedy really well. Though lacking in some parts, directing and portrayal made up for it. The emotional journey this movie takes the viewer across is realistic and heart-wrenching. And it does give the audience a new perspective on love and relationships. I would recommend this movie. But if you're a very emotionless person, you'll probably not like it very much cos you're distracted about the incredibility of the last part.
Genre: DramaSub-Genre: Romantic ComedyCinematography: 4/5Dark at the right times, light at the right times. with the camera constantly moving, it keeps it upbeat and somehow shows the development of Tom.
Portrayal: 16/20It isn't like Christian Bale in American Psycho or something. But the portrayal in this movie is something which made this movie look very realistic. If the acting and script isn't up to this standard, this film won't score well under the story section. Dempsey's and Monaghan's portrayal are able to make the reader feel and connect with the reader emotionally really well.
Directing: 13/20The artistic and dramatic aspects of the play, including music. The three weddings were accurate and very distinctive. The monitor of the scripts and environment is good to make it convincing. The ideas brought about in the film made it damn funny at times. However, the chain of event which follow appear to be too abrupt, more effort should be put to make it more convincing and understandable.
Story: 15/25Emotionally, this thing is powerful. It scores high on the area, but in terms of intellectuality, i mean, the intellectual relatability of the story, it suffers. However, there is sufficient development of the character and conflicts, and that pushes up the score again. But again, a lazy and inadequately barren finale deflates emotional build-up. In general, a sufficient story.
Total: 48/70or68.5%0-20 = Pontianak
21-40 = Pussy
41-50 = Prosaic
51-60 = Pass
61-70 = Prefable
71-80 = Polished
81-90 = Professional
91-100 = Paramount
Labels: reviews
