Made of Honour

May 4 2008 by Sunday Sun

DIRECTOR: Paul Weiland. CAST: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Sydney Pollack, Kathleen Quinlan. RUNNING TIME: 101mins. RATING: 12A.

MADE OF HONOUR is a gender-reversed revamp of the 1997 romcom My Best Friend’s Wedding, about a bed-hopping 30- something who realises — almost too late — he’s in love with the only woman he hasn’t slept with.

Invariably, this emotional lightning bolt strikes at the precise moment she is preparing to walk up the aisle with another man.

This movie doesn’t stray far too far from the original, except perhaps for the climactic nuptials set against the breathtaking loch-side setting of Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye.

A Highland Games sequence is a good excuse to dress leading man Patrick Dempsey in a most revealing mini-kilt as he struggles to get to grips with the traditional tests of strength and skill.

“A tree? We’re tossing a tree!” he gasps, staring dumbfounded at a caber.

Dempsey plies his natural charm to sidestep obvious shortcomings in the script — weak characterisation, a lack of dramatic tension — and win our sympathy.

Luckily for him, his rival for the heroine’s affections is devoid of personality and thinks the ultimate romantic gesture is a rousing chorus of the traditional song Love is Like a Rose.

Made of Honour is as predictable as an unseemly scrabble for the bride’s bouquet, but Dempsey is adorable, while Michelle Monaghan makes the most of her underwritten leading role as Hannah.