Reviews On // Bride Wars

The Guardian
Bride Wars is a film about Bloomingdale's, Vera Wang and the Plaza hotel. It is also - at times tangentially - about two former best friends (Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway) who love Bloomingdale's, Vera Wang and the Plaza hotel, but who hate each other on account of booking their respective weddings on the same date at the same place (the Plaza hotel, as luck would have it).

Bride Wars
Production year: 2009
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 89 mins
Directors: Gary Winick
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Bryan Greenberg, Candice Bergen, Chris Pratt, Kate Hudson, Kristen Johnston

"Is there anything better than Vera Wang?" they squeal, although this question is meant rhetorically. Product placements taken care of, director Gary Winick sends the twosome scuttling from boutique to hotel while the jaunty soundtrack reminds us that this is intended as a light, frothy comedy as opposed to, say, the satanic black mass we might otherwise take it for.
Our deepest condolences to Hudson as the ironically named "Liv". Her dead eyes and rouged cheeks suggest she's bypassed the wedding and gone straight to the funeral.

Rotten Tomatoes
13%
Average Rating 3.4/10

Telegraph
There’s a clear outbreak of tit-for-tat hostilities in Bride Wars, a catfight comedy with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway vying for the same Manhattan wedding slot.
The movie makes a ridiculous ass of itself, but as a run-for-the-hills endurance test for straight men everywhere, it’s almost fascinating.

The gals are best friends who have the question simultaneously popped, but neither will cave – it has to be the Plaza Hotel in June.
Witty put-downs aren’t their thing, or the script’s – instead we have Hudson switching her co-star’s spray-on tan to “blood orange”, and in turn having her hair dyed blue.
To be honest, it’s an improvement – with straight blonde tresses this long, Hudson looks like Cousin It from The Addams Family – but it’s never quite clear why they couldn’t just settle on a joint ceremony. They are – did I mention this? – best friends.
It’s almost a joke that the two grooms are irrelevant action figures. It’s almost the point that the demented logistics of wedding planning crowd out any sincere thought for who is marrying whom, and why.
Bride Wars, in another, better, incarnation, would be an out-and-proud satire on nuptial mania, and would end with Hudson and Hathaway getting civilly partnered.
Sadly, what we get is this Bridezilla-vs-Bridezilla dumb show, and the inevitable Candice Bergen cameo expressing a brusque contempt for the whole business.
Rating: **

Bride Wars reviewed by Mark Kermode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao5fW6VUYxo

Eyeweekly.com
Editorial Rating: **/5
“This fighting is so dumb!” cries one of our battling brides near the close of the combat in this formulaic nuptial comedy. It’s hard to disagree after watching former best friends Liv (Kate Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) commit various cruelties in a joyless campaign to derail each other’s wedding, which has been accidentally booked for the same day and venue. Most of this frantic business — e.g., acts of sabotage at tanning and hair salons, a covert effort to expand Liv’s “huge ass” via gifts from the “International Butter Club” — plays more bitter than funny. Actually, it’s not much of an exaggeration to claim that Hathaway’s solipsistic-sister routine in Rachel Getting Married generated more laughs. Director Gary Winick’s decision to ground it all in something resembling real emotions backfires badly since Bride Wars feels too brittle to work as lighthearted farce and too facile and contrived to compete with Hathaway’s far worthier wedding-themed flick. Tulle-crazed viewers with a craving for nuptial porn are better off with marathons on TLC.