Made-for-TV movie review: Bridal Fever (Hallmark Channel)
01/31/08 04:47 PM
By ED BARK
Somehow this movie slipped past Lifetime and also likely will evade reviews from all but a handful of male TV critics.
Or maybe just this one will be writing about it.
Hallmark Channel's Bridal Fever, premiering Saturday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. (central), is a coming out party for the girlyman gene. But it's also a royal flush if you play your cards right. Watch this movie with your sweetie and then cash in those brownie points. This is Valentine's Day foreplay she won't soon forget. Stick that in your promotional campaign, Hallmark.
Venerable Delta Burke, sporting a sprayed and neutered mound of immovable dark chocolate hair, stars as a bestselling romance novelist with six marriages under her belt. But Dahlia Marchand still sees herself as an expert on affairs of the heart. So she's quick to pounce when the hand-picked, unwed editor of her autobiography laments that she just can't understand men.
"I will whip your love life into shape, so help me God," Dahlia informs blonde, beautiful but genuine Gwen Green (Andrea Roth), who's relentlessly appealing.
You'll know how this ends before the first half-hour is up. But make it to Bridal Fever's halfway mark and you'll be in good shape to go the distance. This is a story with not one, but two rooting interests. Gwen of course is one of them, but so is the outwardly imperious Dahlia. Will each of them somehow find true happiness? Well, duh, yeah. The key is in caring whether they do or not. And this film unlocks both of those keys.
Roth, otherwise much harder-edged as Tommy Gavin's estranged wife on Rescue Me, flexes a million dollar smile and a figure that works very well from all angles. Burke, who came to fame in Designing Women, still has enough oomph to make Dahlia a bit more of a character than caricature.
Both women earn their happy endings. And the movie also knows how to treat its four principal men, none of whom are dolts played for easy laughs.
That said, this isn't anything more than what its makers intended. Bridal Fever has no surprises, but nonetheless is a movie that earns its keep. It's also a sound investment for big lugs with untapped feminine sides. Maybe some of you will thank me in the morning.
Grade: B
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