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SOMETHING BORROWED

"Borrowed. . . Or Stolen?"

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What You Need To Know:

SOMETHING BORROWED is based on the novel by Emily Giffin. Rachel seemingly has an ideal life -- a great job as a top attorney at a big, New York law firm and a great core of friends, including her lifelong best friend, Darcy. The only thing missing is love. After her 30th birthday, Rachel has a little too much to drink and ends up waking next to Dex, Darcy’s fiancé. Darcy unwittingly stole Dex from Rachel, but Rachel has kept silent. Rachel must decide if she will stand up to Darcy and tell her the truth, or if she will continue to cower, keeping her feelings for Dex hidden away forever.

SOMETHING BORROWED is often very funny. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, but none of them come from the leads. Instead, most of the laughs come from John Krasinski, best known for his role as Jim in TV’s THE OFFICE, who plays Rachel’s other friend. Sadly, SOMETHING BORROWED has an abundance of explicit crude dialogue, a lot of promiscuity, too much foul language, alcohol abuse, and implied marijuana use. Reviews of better romantic comedies are at our website, movieguide.org.

Content:

(PaPa, RoRo, H, PC, Ho, B, LLL, V, SS, N, AA, DD, MM) Mostly mixed, strong pagan worldview with strong Romantic elements as people follow their emotions and their hearts over what is morally and biblically correct, brief humanist element as man’s inherent goodness is sometimes tainted by doing bad things, politically correct homosexual message when man lies to a woman enamored with him that he’s gay just so she will stop pursuing him but this prompts her to wear a “Legalize Gay” T-shirt in another scene, and characters say, “Thank God” in a few scenes; 19 obscenities, 27 profanities and three mentions of female genitalia; man is knocked out by woman with a badminton racket and his nose is broken, and a young boy falls off a skateboard, and woman pulls her hamstring while dancing seductively in a bar; strong sexual content overall includes implied fornication in several scenes, sounds of couple fornicating can be heard in the next room by their friends, people cheat on their respective partners, it’s implied that couple lives together out of wedlock, unmarried kissing throughout, man tells woman who is attracted to him that he’s homosexual so she will stop pursuing him, and strong sexual dialogue throughout; strong alcohol use depicted throughout, including drunkenness depicted in several scenes; couple leaves party to go outside and smoke pot; and, lying, cheating, backstabbing, and immoral characters pursue physical pleasure over moral obligation.

More Detail:

SOMETHING BORROWED, based on the novel by Emily Giffin, is the story of two best friends, Rachel and Darcy, whose life-long relationship is tested when Rachel has an affair with Darcy’s fiancé, Dex.

Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) seemingly has an ideal life, including a great job as a top attorney at a big, New York law firm and a great core of friends, especially her life-long best friend, Darcy (Kate Hudson). The only thing missing is love. After her 30th birthday, Rachel has a little too much to drink and ends up waking next to Dex (Colin Egglesfield), Darcy’s fiancé. Rachel and Dex have a long history together. As former study partners in law school, Rachel is actually the reason why Dex met Darcy.

Now, Rachel finds herself in an unimaginable situation: caught between loyalty to her best friend and following her heart for Dex. Rachel’s other close friend, Ethan (John Krasinski), stands beside Rachel, offering both his shoulder to cry on and his unwavering honesty for Rachel’s situation. His desire for Rachel is that she would stand up for herself and not take second place to Darcy as she has always done. Rachel must decide if she will stand up to Darcy and tell her the truth, or if she will cower, keeping her feelings for Dex hidden away forever. Also, Dex must decide if he will follow his passions for Rachel or cower under his father’s hand and marry Darcy because she is the “right kind of person” for their class of people.

SOMETHING BORROWED is often very funny. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, but none of them come from the leads, Goodwin, Hudson and Egglesfield. Instead, most of the laughs come from John Krasinski, best known for his role in the hit TV series, THE OFFICE. Transcending his TV personality, Krasinski, as Rachel’s go-to friend, Ethan, steals the comedy from this romantic comedy. The triangle love story between Rachel, Darcy and Dex is tried and true; no real new tricks here. Even so, despite the movie’s formulaic nature and the failure of the leads, it’s an entertaining movie overall, but for mature audiences only.

Regrettably, SOMETHING BORROWED has a mostly mixed, pagan worldview with strong elements of Romanticism. None of the characters are without multiple faults, yet they believe the solution to life’s problems can be found in love and romance. Also, none of the characters – besides Ethan, whose unbending honesty often serves as Rachel’s conscience – have redeemable qualities. Audiences may be able to sympathize with Rachel’s fragile nature, but all of the characters are immoral, dishonest and base.

There’s also a mild homosexual message as one character lies to a woman, telling her he’s gay, so she will stop pursuing a relationship with him. This, however, backfires on him, as the woman chooses to wear a “Legalize Gay” T-shirt to show her support for him. While this plot device serves to provide comedy, the political message is less than subtle.

SOMETHING BORROWED has an abundance of explicit sexual dialogue. There’s a lot of promiscuity and implied fornication between characters. The movie also has too much foul language, depicted drunkenness in several scenes, implied drug use, and strong miscellaneous immorality. While the movie is funny, the content requires extreme caution, even for mature audiences.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.