This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Chip Off the Old Block
Plot Overview
Thomas Bailey Sr. (Sydney Pollack) had a loving & committed marriage that before his wife died produced a son. That's a predictor of a second good marriage, but the gentleman looked for greener pastures as in author Sebastian Faulks:
“The lifelong love that young romantic Frenchwomen dream about—and perhaps most English girls as well—that ideal they think so unattainable is in fact rather commonplace. I know hundreds of men and women who loved each other all their lives and died in that same condition. The feelings you describe are more unusual.”“What do your mean?”
“The passion, that thing people call ‘merely physical,’ is perhaps rarer than what they refer to as lasting love. Rarer, and therefore perhaps more valuable.” (215)
Thomas then goes through a series of serial marriages & divorces w/young hotties, holding his head above water through the agency of well negotiated prenups.
He sends his son Tom (Patrick
Dempsey) to Cornell U. who by his
senior year in 1998 has figured out that his father has
somehow got it wrong (“He does know that he can just
date, right?”) Tom trolls the ripe field of college freshman.
During a Halloween party while disguised as Bill Clinton,
connecting with a drunk “Monica” and hoping to avoid
“Hillary” (Emily Nelson,) he rouses “Sleeping
Beauty”, “Monica's” geeky roommate Hannah
(Michelle Monaghan) who'd returned early from the library. She
knows him by reputation (You've slept with half my floor) and
refuses to fill in for “Monica” (“Well, half your
floor was female.”)
Ten years pass. Hannah a fine arts
major is now a “museum maven of the Met” in New York. She refused the
offer of a Wall Street guy to live with him. Pushing thirty she
still declined the proposal of a Canadian a while back. Her face
tells she has feelings for Tom, but they're just friends.
Tom has achieved independent wealth through his invention of the
coffee collar. His basket ball buddy Felix (Kadeem Hardison) is
touting the benefits of marriage, to have someone reliable to
always be there. But Tom has Hannah for companionship and so
many women for sex he has to schedule them. When Hannah has to
travel to Scotland for acquisitions, Tom missing her decides to
make some romantic overtures when she gets back. When she
returns with a Scottish fiancé Colin (Kevin McKidd) in tow,
Tom accepts Hannah's offer to be her maid of honor so he can
undermine their relations from within the camp. Try as he
might, though, he's unable to get the goods on the guy.
Furthermore, his established reputation as a womanizer is
rather difficult to overcome once he states his intentions.
Ideology
Colin
being minor royalty—a duke—there's the matter of his
marrying a commoner, which needs to be cleared by the grand
council. Hannah of Christian background would need clearance
to marry a “fornicator” should she decide on Tom.
Friendship with Tom was not a problem, as (1Cor. 5:9-10) “I wrote unto you
in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world, … for then must ye needs
go out of the world.” We cannot avoid sinners entirely in
this world. If that leads to marriage, then so be it. (1Cor. 7:28) “But and if thou
marry, thou hast not sinned; … Nevertheless such
shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.” Religious
difference would just mean one more thing to argue over.
Hannah introduces her male bridesmaid to the “sweet” Reverend Foote (James B. Sikking) of Grace Church who had “married my parents.” Thinking Tom is the groom, he declaims, “We have many gay and lesbian members of our congregation.” Being gay is not a sin per se as long as the queer resists the temptation. Marriage is an out for hetero couples as, (1Cor. 7:2) “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” Note the hetero framework. Homosexual “marriage” though legalized is still fornication from a Christian (and traditional) perspective. Civil union ≡ domestic partnership ≡ marriagehomo.
Rev.
Foote's welcome proceeds from the macrocosm to the micro: a large
number of gays and lesbians in their congregation means he can
accept a piddling male bridesmaid. The Bible takes it from the
other direction re mixed marriage. (2Cor. 6:14-15) “Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: ... For … what
part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” A single mixed
couple has (acknowledged) difficulties to work out, which leads
Paul to command not to include nonbelievers in the overall
congregation—note the plural “ye” he
uses. He does not forbid a mixed marriage here, because marriage to
either believer or non– is a means to avoid fornication, but
with temple prostitutes in the heathen religions of his day,
bringing them into the congregation could only increase
fornication. In our movie the tarot card reader invited for
entertainment of the bridesmaids would not be appropriate
to have in the congregation.
Tom's father was a shrewd negotiator of prenuptial agreements. In Bible times it would have been a Jewish father haggling over bride price and dowry to get the most cattle, land and property, whatever. Paul goes on to say, (2Cor. 7:2) “Receive us; … we have defrauded no man.” He also says he's, (2Cor. 8:21) “Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” If he were to have commanded recent converts to break up with their as yet unconverted intendeds, it's doubtful he'd have been able to provide an adequate substitute on the fly to satisfy a father not too keen on what to him would be this new Jewish cult his son or daughter joined; he'd raise a big stink. But this never happened because Paul never forbade mixed marriages. If they want to break it off, it's on them.
Production Values
“” (2008) was directed by Paul Weiland. It was written by Adam Sztykiel, Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. It stars Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan and Kevin McKidd. It's ultimately good acting that makes the movie watchable as it retreads old grounds. Michelle Monaghan is quite the charmer and she holds the movie together. Some good supporting actors were overkill in this unambitious film.
MPA rated it PG–13 for sexual content and language. The Scottish locations are lovely. The music is pleasant. The American characters miscredited the Scottish for originating Scotch Tape and McDonalds (ha, ha), but it was a Scottish gentleman Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone; it didn't always work long distance here. This movie is very much like others of its ilk.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
In this movie there's a scene of a
herd of cows blocking the road and another of a flock of sheep
doing the same, both mindlessly altering the course of true
love. Sheeple sometimes affect it, too, as if it were a matter
of finding the perfect fellow or gal for the unmarried, say, a duke
or a man of the cloth. People have their druthers, and I think this
movie can help one determine how much store to set by society's
approval and one's own.
I rather enjoyed it, and if you don't want to bother with the same old same old, the ads will advise you what to expect and you can see something different. It did as well as one could hope, for some standard material.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769. Software.
Faulks, Sebastian. Charlotte Gray. Copyright © 1998 by Sebastian Faulks. New York: Random House, Inc., 1999. First US edition. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org