Blu-Ray Review: Don’t Bother to Take ‘Something Borrowed’

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CHICAGO – “Something Borrowed” is just a stupid, stupid movie. It’s not painful nor as horrendous as many recent romantic comedies largely through the overall likeability of star Ginnifer Goodwin, but it’s just stupid. It features stupid people doing stupid things and serves as more of a cautionary tale about picking the right people to support you than it does as any sort of modern romance. With too-little chemistry as friends or lovers, “Something Borrowed” never clicks. It should disappear soon from Blu-ray and DVD shelves and all but the most diehard fans of the romantic genre or the stars involved should give it back.

Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0

Ginnifer Goodwin proved her talents with at least a few Emmy-nomination-worthy seasons of HBO’s “Big Love.” She’s an incredibly likable star, which is something useful for a romantic comedy. And yet, writers Jennie Snyder Urman and director Luke Greenfield bury her screen presence in a character and story full of so many cliches and uncomfortable moments that sink everything that works about her under such an unlikable story that her star power is dulled by the entire, ugly thing. Someone find this woman the right role. She needs better scripts.

This script pretends to be a love story but it’s really the tale of a girl with the worst friend and the worst love interest in the world. Rachel (Goodwin) has been stepped on by her obnoxious best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson) for years as she’s been the quiet one next to the loud blonde. Rachel never stands up for herself and one of the greatest flaws of “Something Borrowed” is the desire it gives the viewer to just yell at this poor girl to ditch the parasite with the blonde hair. Darcy is one of the worst friends in the history of film. She ignores and mistreats Rachel and we’re supposed to be OK with it because, well, that’s how friends act.

Something Borrowed was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 16th, 2011
Photo credit: Universal

Luckily, John Krasinski (“The Office”) is there as a slight voice of reason. Playing Rachel’s good friend and confidant, he’s always telling her to stop taking advice from the selfish girl next to her and he is the first one to point out that the love of her life, Dex (Colin Egglesfield), is a spineless jerk. The plot of “Something Borrowed” centers on a love triangle but Dex gets to have it both ways. Sweet Rachel loves Dex but she doesn’t tell him in time and so he ends up with Darcy. When Dex realizes he really loves Rachel, he does almost nothing about it as the writers fall back on silly, underdeveloped reasons for him not merely making the better, obvious romantic choice.

Movies like “Something Borrowed” follow well-worn treads. We know Rachel and Dex will inevitably end up together and they will do so in a way that keeps our heroine’s friendship with Darcy intact. The foundational problem with “Something Borrowed” is that every single viewer will want to shake Rachel and tell her she can do better in love and better in friendship. It’s hard to root for a character who can’t even root for herself.

Special Features:
o Something … Old?
o On Location Tours with Emily Giffin
o Marcus’s Guide To The Ladies
o What Is Something Borrowed?
o Left Off The Guest List: Additional Scenes
o Gag Reel
o Digital Copy Of Feature Film

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com