“There’s no use getting worked up about “Bride Wars,” a bizarrely retrograde comedy about two lifelong friends — played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway — who, since they were tiny tots, have dreamed of one day getting married at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Not to each other, mind you — now that would be a movie.”
“Allow me to suggest this covert strategy to escape further mental harm: Imagine Bride Wars as a rejoinder to the passage of Prop 8. After all, Emma and Liv’s nondescript fiancés are entirely superfluous; when the two women walk down the aisle, they look like they’re marrying each other (a nod to the ending of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?). Their shared wedding date falls in June, Gay Pride Month. Several scenes were filmed in Massachusetts—if Liv and Emma have any sense, the bridezillas will elope to the state that will legally pronounce them wife and wife.”
—Melissa Anderson, TimeOut New York
“Since childhood, the two have dreamed of getting married at the Plaza (alas, not to each other) […]
[I]t’s too bad that he doesn’t (or can’t) venture down the more interesting avenues opened up in the screenplay, which is credited to Greg DePaul (who came up with the story) and the writing team of Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael, who both have small parts in the movie. The opener — a gauzy scene from childhood that finds Liv and Emma, dressed as a bride and groom, tenderly dancing with each other — and an adult catfight, which looks like a prelude to a kiss, suggest that there may be more to this friendship (and the fury underlying its rupture) than either the women or the movie can admit.
[B]ut it’s nice to pretend that they might lead somewhere else, say to San Francisco, where once upon another time two female movie characters, inspired by Harvey Milk (or maybe just Sean Penn), will take on the gay-marriage ban and say “I do, I do” to something more than shopping.”
Bride Wars reviews in the times of Proposition 8
