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Two out of Five star
Running time: 103 mins

As Kate Hudson movies go this is just about watchable but it never quite comes together because the appalling behaviour of the three main characters doesn't translate well from page to screen.

What's it all about?
Directed by Luke Greenfield, Something Borrowed is based on the chick-lit novel by Emily Giffin and stars Ginnifer Goodwin as New York lawyer Rachel, who's been in love with Dex (Colin Egglesfield) since they were friends in law school. When Rachel's centre-of-attention best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson) meets Dex for the first time she puts Rachel on the spot and asks if the two of them like each other and when Rachel embarrassedly declares that they're just good friends, Darcy starts dating Dex instead.

Six years later, Darcy and Dex are engaged and Rachel drunkenly tells Dex that she had a huge crush on him in law school, only for the pair of them to end up in bed together after he says he felt the same way. However, when they wake up together the next morning their conversations are cut short by frantic phone calls from Darcy and they never quite get around to talking about it. Will Dex call off the wedding?

The Good
Ginnifer Goodwin has a hugely likeable screen persona but even her undeniable adorableness isn't enough to excuse her appalling behaviour here, no matter how unsympathetic Hudson's character is or how much the supporting cast (notably John Krasinski as Evan) take her to task over it. Hudson, to be fair, is in her element playing selfish, unsympathetic characters and she's on fine form here, while Krasinski makes the most of his wise-cracking best friend role.

The Bad
Egglesfield (who looks like an air-brushed Joaquin Phoenix) is too bland to make us care about Dexter and his wavering gets more unsympathetic the longer it goes on. However, the film's biggest problem is that the script deliberately fudges the issue of just how much Darcy knew about Rachel's law-school-long crush on Dex in the first place; it also cops out of the expected final confrontation scene.

That said, there is a great scene where Hudson and Goodwin perform a dance routine to Salt 'N Pepa's Push It, though luckily it's on YouTube, so you don't have to see the rest of the film.

Worth seeing?
Despite good work from Goodwin and a gamely unsympathetic performance from Hudson, Something Borrowed fails to push the right romcom buttons and is ultimately disappointing. However, if you do see it, stick around for a bizarre mid-credits sting that hints at the plot of the second novel.