I will be the first to admit it: I love romantic comedies. I will also be the first to admit that it’s been a sparse year. The only decent rom-com I can remember seeing in the past year is “Letters to Juliet,” which came out last summer. So, taken in that context, “Something Borrowed” was good.

I’d love to say it was great. It had everything going for it. The setup: Ginnifer Goodwin, of “He’s Just Not That Into You” fame, plays Rachel, an insecure lawyer who, during law school, had a crush on fellow student Dex (Colin Egglesfield). He obviously liked her too, but for some reason, she thought he was hotter than she was; she sent off “just friends” signals, and he ended up dating and eventually proposing to her confident (read: insensitive diva) best friend, Darcy (Kate Hudson). When the movie opens, it’s Rachel’s 30th birthday party, a few months before Dex and Darcy’s wedding. Rachel has a few drinks with Dex and admits that she had a crush on him in law school. Naturally, they fall into bed together.

So far, so good. Having an affair with your best friend’s fiancé is never an easy minefield to navigate, and there are some pretty real issues raised about doing what you want with your life rather than just letting life happen to you. Colin Egglesfield is sexy, Ginnifer Goodwin is adorable, Kate Hudson somehow manages to be endearingly bitchy, and there’s a funny little subplot going on with Rachel and Darcy’s childhood friend Ethan (John Krasinski) and the one-night stand he can’t seem to get rid of.

The trouble is, 20 minutes into the movie, the plot has nowhere to go. We strongly suspect that Rachel and Dex will end up together, but they pretty much just dance around each other. They avoid eye contact, they kiss, they lie to their friends, they have sex. The entire conflict revolves around the fact that neither of them wants to hurt Darcy, added to the fact that Rachel refuses to ask for what she wants and Dex doesn’t want to disappoint his parents by breaking off the wedding. Call me crazy, but none of this seems like quite enough reason to marry someone you don’t want to marry.

The only saving grace for the next hour or so is Ethan. Jim from “The Office” has always been my perfect man, and John Krasinski plays a very similar character here. He’s sweet, he’s witty and he says exactly what I want to scream at Rachel: You’re both being idiots—grow a backbone and make a decision. In the end, “Something Borrowed” had everything a romantic comedy needs to be successful, and I was still rooting for a happy ending. One of the characters needed to be at least proactive enough to move the story along, however, and most of the time that didn’t happen.