Read More @HJ Previews: Trailer, Studio Stills, Wallpaper, Overview David Bruce, Webmaster

The story of Made of Honor isn't anything new. We all know that within every male-female friendship is a romantic misunderstanding just waiting to happen. If Ross and Rachel taught us nothing else, it's that friends always realize that they are in love with each other at the least opportune moments. And as Julia Roberts showed us over ten years ago when she found herself smack dab in the middle of her best friend's wedding, sometimes it's nothing other than the prospect of losing the person we've always taken for granted that makes us realize how much we need them.

If you've seen Made of Honor's trailer, you pretty much get the gist of it. Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) are best friends. He sleeps around. She searches for love. When she goes overseas for work, Tom realizes that something is missing without Hannah in his life. And when Hannah returns, she introduces Tom to her handsome Scottish fiancè and asks him to be her maid of honor. The setup is pretty much My Best Friend's Wedding with Patrick Dempsey taking over for Julia Roberts. Where Roberts' Jules was only given several days to deal with her romantic dilemma, Dempsey's Tom is given several weeks of wedding planning to work his feelings out. And with Tom opting to prove that he is the perfect man for Hannah instead of just plain sabotaging the marriage she's about to enter, let's just say he not only comes off as a bit more sweet and lovable than Jules, but he also sets his story up for a bit better ending.

And so the story of Hannah and her maid of honor Tom unfolds. Sometimes, the familiarity does become a bit much. I won't pretend there aren't a few scenes that venture into the realm of overly sappy and borderline corny. But like the always lovable dogs who are able to draw out Tom's affections before anyone else, Tom and his story mostly come off as sweet, cute, and able to make you believe that that perfect match is not only something that is out there, but something we can actually have.

The problem (as Made tells us) is that very often, we are simply blind to the truth of that reality. As Tom says after he realizes how much he loves Hannah, "I pride myself in being honest with everyone, but there's somebody I've been lying to for a long time: myself." After watching his father go through marriage after failed marriage, Tom may have told himself that love was not something he wanted, needed, or even believed in. With Hannah always there to be his friend, and a new woman there to sleep with every night, he may have truly believed that seeking to combine the two would be disastrous. But when he faces losing Hannah, a truth that is stronger than every rule he has ever made and everything he has ever been conditioned to believe rises to the top.

Even though Tom may not be able to fully grasp it at first, Tom finds that he is in love. It is a truth he cannot deny. It is a reality that he cannot fight. And as such, even when all circumstances tell him that his love for Hannah is not meant to be, Tom finds that it is too valuable to just let go.

The message at the movie's end? Love is here, love is real, and love is worth fighting for. For all of us who, for whatever reason, have come to believe that love doesn't exist, Made of Honor pushes us to open up our eyes to the love that is there, before it passes us by. And to all of us who hunger for love every day but have begun to wonder if we will ever find it, Made of Honor tells us that it will arrive.

But as a person who has learned that sometimes there are very real reasons your best friend is not going fall in love with you, to be able to relate to Made of Honor myself, I needed to realize that its truths also apply when our best friends don't turn out to be our lovers. And I'm guessing, I'm not alone.

Tom may have needed to let go of what was far and embrace what is close to ever find love. But for many of us, we may only find love by letting go of what is close and opening ourselves up to possibilities we have yet to encounter. Just as Tom was blind to the love between him and Hannah because he was convinced he already had all he needed, we too can become blind to love when the situation is reversed. But the beauty of Tom and Hannah's story as well as my own, is that love is present in both. And in both, the key to finding it seems to be as simple as recognizing that its existence is a little bit bigger than we often allow ourselves to grasp and embracing that reality.

Whoever we are and whatever our lives may have lead us to believe, every single one of us is meant to have love in our lives. Sometimes, that love will be right in front of us. Other times, it will ride in from a direction we never expected. But no matter how flawed, awkward, or improbable love's existence in our life may seem, to let it go without a fight or settle for anything less would be to deny ourselves an amazing gift that is just waiting for us to accept it. Beginning with God and flowing through people, love has been around since before we were born. The only question for us is: Are we willing to believe that it still is and actually open ourselves up to the life changing power of its expression?