Review

Review Date: 27-February-05
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Junk

Bride & Prejudice (2005)

You know a romantic movie isn't working when the only tolerable parts have nothing to do with the couple supposedly destined for bliss. Such is the case with "Bride & Prejudice," Gurinder Chadha's follow-up to the sleeper hit "Bend It Like Beckham." Based on Jane Austen's novel of almost the same name, this east-meets-west tale of misunderstanding, matchmaking, and matrimony stars Indian actress Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi, one of four pretty daughters of a middle-class family in which the mother (Nadira Babbar) is bent on finding respectable and prosperous sons-in-law. Working from her own definition of Mr. Right, Lalita becomes interested in Will Darcy (Martin Henderson), the American friend of her sister's suitor, but his advances get garbled and he quickly offends her as a capitalist pig. In the tradition of all cutesy, well-meaning single people on film, however, their initial awkwardness and animosity really signify a deep mutual passion, which can only be consummated after she veers dangerously toward a bohemian traveler (Daniel Gillies), travels halfway around the world and back, and vents her feelings in numerous outbursts of choreographed song and dance.

"Bride & Prejudice" aims to introduce the West to the lavish theatricality of Bollywood, India's moviemaking machine, and it does boast an exciting color palette and occasional sense of fun. (The costumes are to die for.) But whenever the music ends and the characters begin to talk, it devolves into a cut-rate version of an already bargain-basement story. For the 4,000th time, a show asks us to believe that two people are meant for each other simply because they look like movie stars and engage in instantly recognizable rituals of scripted courtship. (For the 3,990th time, it fails.) Rai may be comely, but she isn't much of an actress; at least she can't cull a personality from what she's given here. Worst of all, she and Henderson generate as much heat as a pair of nuns eating sherbet on an ice floe. This fatal lack of chemistry isn't entirely her fault: one can hardly be expected to ignite a spark with scant dialogue and a leading man who has all the charisma of whiteout. (Henderson is so appallingly dull that the movie's comic-relief buffoon, played by Nitin Ganatra, emerges as the more appealing.)

Contrary to popular belief (apparently held 'round the world), romantic movies cannot succeed solely on the presence of a pretty face and the promise of happily ever after — especially if they tell the same old tale, and not even when everybody sings. We have all heard "Here Comes the Bride" before; what we need is a genuinely interesting couple to sing us a new tune.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.