Book to Movie Review: Something Borrowed

 

Summary (for the book):

Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

Review:

I loved Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed (read my review here), so I was really looking forward to watching the movie adaptation.  I was most excited about John Krasinski, and when I saw that he was one of the main characters, I knew the $6.99 Video On Demand rental fee would be worth it.

After watching the movie, I noticed on IMDB that Something Borrowed got poor ratings.  It may not have received critical acclaim, but I still enjoyed the movie.  I don't know if I'd ever want to watch it again (primarily because I just don't like Kate Hudson), but I did enjoy it and thought it was a good adaptation of an excellent book.  

Now let's talk casting for a minute.  I included the cast list from IMDB for the purposes of this review.  I think that Ginnifer Goodwin was a perfect Rachel.  Kate Hudson embodied the selfish, flighty Darcy well, even though Darcy is a brunette in the book.  For some reason, that really bothered me...I felt like they should have darkened her hair for the movie.  Which makes me wonder, have you ever seen Kate Hudson as anything other than a blonde?  I haven't.  Colin Egglesfield was the perfect Dex.  He looks exactly how I pictured Dex as I read the book.  John Krasinski did a great job as Ethan and I think he was the best actor out of the group.

One of my favorite things about book to movie adaptations is noticing differences between the book and the movie.  In fact, my husband recently had to ask me to please stop saying, "That's NOT in the books" when watching True Blood.  This was not a problem with Something Borrowed for two reasons: it stayed fairly true to the book (yay!) and I watched it alone.  My husband came home from work about halfway through, watched about 30 seconds of the movie, and hightailed it out of the room, saying he couldn't stomach any more.  There were definitely elements in the movie that were not in the book, but the main themes were the same and the ending was the same.  I have a really hard time when the ending is totally different between the two versions.

Overall, I would recommend Something Borrowed to fans of chick flicks and fans of the book.  The book was definitely better than the movie, but the movie was still good.  If you do watch the movie, make sure to watch the credits all the way through.  There's a great little surprise scene at the end that sets up a "To Be Continued...".

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Ginnifer Goodwin	...	Rachel
	Kate Hudson	...	Darcy
	Colin Egglesfield	...	Dex
	John Krasinski	...	Ethan
	Steve Howey	...	Marcus
	Ashley Williams	...	Claire