The Decoy Bride

Movie Title--  The Decoy Bride

Release Year--  2011

Running Time--  1 Hour and 29 Minutes

Director--  Sheree Folkson

Cast--  Kelly MacDonald, David Tennant, Alice Eve, Michael Urie, Sally Phillips, Hamish Clark, Federico Castelluccio, Maureen Beattie, James Fleet

Wildly popular starlet Lara Taylor is determined to keep the media away from her wedding to English author James Arbor, so when the media descends on the sleepy Scottish island of Hegg, her agent hires a decoy bride to throw the paparazzi off scent.

The hugely popular Lara Tyler (Alice Eve) only wish is to marry her fiancee James Arbor (David Tennant) but the paparazzi refuse to leave them alone.  When their traditional wedding is spoiled by photographer Marco Ballani (Federico Castelluccio), Lara decides to have her wedding on the Scottish island of Hegg, the location of which James had based his book "The Ornithologists Wife".

Meanwhile, Katie (Kelly MacDonald) is returning to her mother's home in Hegg, broken hearted and down-trodden.  As soon as she gets home her mother informs her that she is going to a wedding and since her mother is in a wheelchair, Katie pushes her to the chapel in the rain, only to learn that it is the wedding of her ex-boyfriend Angus (Hamish Clark).  At the reception Katie runs into her old boss William (James Fleet) and asks for her job back.  The next day, William comes in and tells Katie that he wants her to partner with him to write a guide book about Hegg, telling her that there is a Marketing Group coming to the island.

Lara's agent, Steve Korbitz (Michael Urie) and Emma arrive in Hegg and Katie escorts them to the castle that was supposed to be straight out of the book.  Upon seeing the condition of the castle, Steve realizes that James had never in fact come to Hegg to research his book and did all of his research through Google Earth. He gets to work turning the castle into a replica from the book so that Lara can have the wedding of her dreams and James is stunned when he learns that they are in Hegg and he sees the castle for himself.  Steve tells James he knows he didn't truly come to the island for research, so frustrated, James decides to go for a stroll and takes his book with him.  

At the same time, Katie is out and it starts to rain, so she runs into a rundown toilet.  It is a local legend that the ghost of a drown cow haunts the toilet, therefore the locals all refer to the place as "The Haunted Toilet".  She is taking voice recorded notes for her guide book and steps into a particularly disgusting stall when she hears someone coming into the toilets, so she closes the door behind her and hides.  When she hears a man mumbling, she goes over to an open pipe and moos as if she were the ghost of the cow, trying to play a joke on the man mistaking him for someone else but quickly realizes that the man is not a friend of hers.  Embarrassed, Katie tries to explain herself and introduces herself to James, who tells her that his name is John Johnson.

James then tells Katie that he is lost and she offers to help him out.  As they are walking she notices the book that he is holding and goes on to tell him that the Hegg book club has given it a 4 out of 10 and that nothing in the book is actually like it is on the island.  When James has finally had enough criticism, he tells Katie he can find his way and after embarrassing herself, the two part ways.

The next morning Lara is out for a run with Emma when she spots Marco and she takes off.  Emma goes back and tells Steve that Lara is gone, so he decides to hire a woman to be a decoy bride until Lara can be found.  Steve remembers Katie and hires her to stand in Lara's place.  The plan is disastrous and James is suspicious the entire time.  It is only after the wedding when the two of them are locked away in a room together to keep them from being seen by the paparazzi, do they realize that they each signed their real names on the marriage certificate, making them actually married.  The two then set out to find a way out of their marriage and find Lara before the media learns everything.

I really like this film but I will admit, isn't going to be for everyone.  I watch a lot of BBCA but for those people that don't, you may have a little trouble understanding what they are saying because sometimes Kelly MacDonald and David Tennant's accents can sound slightly thick.

This is a typical cheesy romantic comedy and honestly, the story is kind of corny but the acting is great.  I am big fan of both David Tennant and Kelly MacDonald, so for me, this was just awesome.  They work really well on screen together and are extremely funny.  I think that Kelly's performance was so good that there were even a few times that I actually felt a little embarrassed for Kelly's character Katie when she did something extremely silly or the wrong words spilled out of her mouth.  The Tennant and MacDonald are really the best part of the entire film.

If you are looking for a romantic comedy, this is a pretty decent one.  If you are unsure about it before you sit down to it view it, just remember that there is a chance you won't like this one.  Use an open mind with this one and Don't Forget the Popcorn!