I hate movies that are populated by idiots and require that I and other viewers sink to their level in order to accept their premise. Something Borrowed is such a film. While I’m sure I killed thousands of brain cells while sitting through Fast Five last week, I know that the same thing happened to me while watching this lamebrain comedy. Trust me, this experience was not nearly as enjoyable.
Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) has spent her life wilting in the shadow of her best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson). Why she would want to associate with this shrill, self-absorbed, mean-spirited woman, let alone consider her a friend, is the first of the many leaps in logic director Luke Greenfield requires that we make. Another is the fact that Darcy’s hunky fiancé, Dex (Colin Egglesfield), would want to marry this taskmaster. Equally vexing is the notion that he would overlook Rachel, who’s successful, beautiful and obviously in love with him. Wouldn’t you know it, Dex loves her too, but his engagement to Darcy is an arrangement he tells himself he’s unable to break.
While it’s not on the level of Hamlet’s bout with indecision, Dex’s inability to choose between Rachel and Darcy is beyond frustrating. So is the fact that Rachel allows herself to be used as a doormat by her best friend as well as her paramour. Borrowed is what I like to call an “idiot movie.” Its characters are idiots, they do idiotic things and it treats us as idiots as it expects us to accept these characters and their situations. What with its three principals all being unlikable to varying degrees and its unrealistic fairytale ending, Borrowed is the sort of film that gives “chick flicks” a bad name. Bear this in mind ladies if you decide to drag your boyfriend or husband to this. You’ll have to sit through more than a few idiotic action films to even the score.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at ckoplinski@usd116.org.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.
