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'Made of Honor'

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BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS | Chicago Tribune

May 2, 2008

Patrick Dempsey has a lot going for him, including an interestingly distracted quality, as if he can't stop thinking about his patients even when he's not playing a doctor. Yet his success at this point remains slightly ahead of his skill set. Like a lot of medium-talented folks, he's primarily lucky. He's McDreamy on "Grey's Anatomy" and he offered solid backcourt assistance in last year's hit "Enchanted." Now Dempsey stars in a wedding-centric romantic comedy called "27 Dresses." Sorry, "My Best Friend's Wedding." Sorry, "Made of Honor."

Dempsey plays Tom, a monstrously rich and successful entrepreneur who has it all. Arm's-length relationships by the score; basketball with the guys; a best friend, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), who understands him and sees in Tom the potential for so much more.

Midway through the film, Tom realizes he wants to marry the woman who can make him the best possible Mr. Man. When his BFF threatens to walk down the aisle with her newfound Scottish sweetheart (Kevin McKidd), it's clear to our hero that he must "destroy the wedding from within," much as Julia Roberts schemed in "My Best Friend's Wedding."

In that movie, at least, you had a wily, semi-unsympathetic weasel running the show and scoring a few laughs. In "Made of Honor," bland Tom is not a comic engine. At best he's a dashboard.

Dempsey's pleasant enough, but he hasn't yet learned how to play against a mediocre script's obviousness. Monaghan has, which is gratifying. (She single-handedly got me through the "Heartbreak Kid" remake alive.) Her character gets all the sympathy in "Made of Honor," but the actress' sandpapery voice and unconventional good looks put her one step closer to the majors than Dempsey - even if millions of McDreamers may disagree.

MADE OF HONOR (PG-13). Uneven romantic comedy about a wealthy commitmentphobe who stumbles across true love right under his nose. Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Sydney Pollack. Directed by Paul Weiland. 1:39. (sexual content, language). At area theaters.