‘Maid’ to measure

Brit director Paul Weiland (a graduate from TV’s Mr Bean) and writers Adam Sztykiel and Deborah Kaplan manage to move this Patrick Dempsey vehicle away from what might justifiably have been predicted – God-awful trash – into something that’s just a little sharper and funnier than its set-up may give you cause to dread.

Chick flick. God, I hate that term, but Made of Honor (and I also hate US spellings of English words, but we won’t go into that here) plays around with the format sufficiently to allow more than a few surprising laughs.

Dempsey plays Tom, a serial dater who has stayed close but platonic with Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) for ten years – she wants marriage, but hasn’t found the right man. But, just as Tom thinks he may finally be in with a chance, Hannah announces her engagement and, to add insult to injury, asks him to be her ‘maid’ of honour (and we’re spelling ‘honour’ that way now, OK?).

He agrees, but only because he intends to kibosh the wedding and woo the woman. Fun and games…

Dempsey and Monaghan in fact work very well together – chemistry is the customary term, but here there is also genuinely natty comic timing that’s rarely seen in rom-com partnerships. Add into the mix some hilarious quick and dirty details (combined, of course, with sentimental moments that manage at least not to swamp proceedings), and what you have for the price of admission is a tasty slice of old-fashioned fun.

101 mins.