This charming independent Scottish film is about a young writer (Kelly Macdonald, currently starring as the voice of Merida in Brave) who returns to her home, a small island off the coast of Scotland after a bad breakup. She moves back in with her mum and starts to write a guidebook for the island. Meanwhile, a one-hit novelist who set his book on the same island (David Tennant) arrives with his bride-to be, a famous and beautiful young actress (Alice Eve) who cannot escape the paparazzi. The island is quite tiny, so Macdonald finds herself showing Tennant around.
The press finds them anyway, so the actress’ entourage suggests that they use Macdonald as a decoy, holding a fake ceremony so that photographers will think they have the shots they want and go away before the actual wedding. Naturally, Tennant and Macdonald have a number of misadventures along the way and fall in love for reals.
The Decoy Bride is more complex and interesting than I am making it sound; it has some dark moments and some silly ones to add a little variety to the otherwise predictable plot. In that sense it reminded me of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero, one of my favourite films. Alice Eve is luminous as usual and Macdonald and Tennant have good chemistry. There is a good supporting cast as well, including Dylan Moran, Sally Phillips, and Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie.
The latest Pixar film is the tale of Merida, a Scottish princess who would rather shoot targets with a bow or climb a dangerous rock face than take lessons in etiquette from her mother. Her father lost his leg in a battle with a particularly fierce bear and her little brothers are hell-raising triplets. Merida’s life reaches a breaking point when three allied clans show up to offer candidates for her hand in marriage, and since the manner of competition is her choice, she chooses archery – and wins her own hand, infuriating her mother and putting the truce between the clans in danger.
