Critical response
Made of Honor received unfavorable reviews from critics, with some critics calling it a gender swapped version of My Best Friend's Wedding. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 15% based on 124 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Sharp performances by Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan can't save this forgettable, formulaic chick flick from its comic failings." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.
Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club gave the film an overall C grade, giving credit to the performances of Sydney Pollack and Monaghan for being surprisingly good in a by-the-numbers romantic story alongside Dempsey displaying "plastic sincerity" in his role, saying: "It's telling that he's followed by a string of sidekicks apparently created to make him less bland by comparison." The New York Times' Stephen Holden commended the punch-up of the script for adding "tart satirical flavors to a cotton-candy formula" and the screen presence of both Dempsey and Monaghan, highlighting the latter for giving "enough sweetness to satisfy the cotton-candy addicts." Barbara Vancheri of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette praised the utilization of the "picturesque, romantic" Scotland setting and the cast's willingness to perform, despite devolving into slapstick comedy and tacking on a 1940s film ending. She concluded by explaining its release alongside Iron Man saying: "Made of Honor is made to order for women or couples looking for an alternative to the comic-book adaptation and for a romcom with such obvious and memorable film forebears, it's still breezy fun."
Elizabeth Weitzman from the New York Daily News gave credit to Dempsey for his comedic timing over material containing "snickering emasculation" and director Paul Weiland for his "brisk pace" direction over "a lazy script from three screenwriters who take the low road every time." She concluded that: "The cinematic equivalent of a cookie-cutter wedding, Made of Honor ultimately feels a little depressing." Philip Marchand of the Toronto Star noted how the film's content contains "numerous references to insecure masculinity", saying that: "It's often a problem to determine when a movie is satirizing characters from a superior height and when it's sharing the mental level of those characters." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said about the film beyond its "gibberish" title: "Everything else about it is plasticky and nonsensical with no one behaving like a real carbon-based life-form. Monaghan's charm is stifled, and a classy cameo from Sydney Pollack as Dempsey's scapegrace dad goes for nothing. A film to leave at the altar." Ed Gonzalez from Slant Magazine called the film "soul-crushingly predictable", lamenting the misuse of Pollack's "ostensible prestige" only for it to be diminished by Kevin Sussman's character, unfunny sex jokes, an irritating soundtrack and defamation of Scottish people.
The film was nominated for Choice Movie – Bromantic Comedy at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, but ultimately lost to What Happens in Vegas.
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