Movies about weddings can be so fun and girly and sweet. It’s easy to get swept up in the sparkly rings and the hunt for the perfect dresses and the cream-colored towering cakes. Plus, at the heart of Bride Wars there’s also this relationship between two BFFs and I’m all for movies with an emphasis on the strength of female friendship. But this film doesn’t do right by either the fun bridal aspect or the “girlfriend” aspect and comes up seeming empty and kinda sad.


Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) are the bestest of friends who spent much time as children dreaming of (and role-playing) their weddings. Now that they’re adults (Liv a harsh, high-powered businesswoman and Emma the sensitive low-paid schoolteacher), they plan to be each other’s maid of honor and as luck would have it, they both get engaged around the same time. But when they meet with wedding planner extraordinaire Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen), an administrative hiccup causes the two weddings to be booked at the Plaza Hotel on the same date. When neither one will move her wedding, the two brides-to-be turn against each other, trying to sabotage the other’s wedding, and their friendship suffers. For more of my thoughts on all this,

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