Bride Wars

Two best friends (Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway) become worst enemies over clashing wedding plans. Although two women are listed among the writers (Casey Wilson, June Diane Raphael), two guys devised the story (Greg DePaul) and directed (Gary Winick). As it happens, this contrived, mean-spirited, unfunny farce feels like the work of someone who hates chick flicks and isn’t all that fond of women in the first place. Hudson and Hathaway are dressed, coifed and photographed to look as unappealing as the shrewish characters they play—Hudson bedraggled, Hathaway hatchet-faced. It takes either perverse malice or sheer ineptitude to make two such beautiful women look this unattractive, with behavior to match; take your pick which is to blame. Candice Bergen and Kristen Johnston also thrash about in the wreckage.