DVD Review: Wedding Date (2005)

DVD Review:

Wedding Date (2005)

A successful New Yorker pilfers money from her 401K to hire a professional male escort as her date to her sister’s wedding in order to make her ex, the best man, jealous.

With a slightly clichéd plot line, and with the handsome Dermot Mulroney as the male lead, I thought I will give this DVD a spin, considering how much I enjoy watching romantic comedies.

The movie starts simple enough. It shows Kat Ellis, played by Will and Grace Debra Messing, hurriedly packing for her London trip, while nervously wondering if she made the right decision. She finally meets her hired escort on the plane, who is romance-novel gorgeous, complete with cryptic philosophical sayings like, “Every woman has the exact love life she wants.”

As the movie progresses, we get introduced to Kat’s family and all the other guests in the wedding. Amidst the merrymaking of pre-wedding activities, Kat discovers that her ex, who seemed to have no redeeming factor at all, was actually sleeping with her sister during the time they were a couple. Now that information, not only shatters Kat, but also damming information to the groom, wen he realizes that his bride-to-be used to have sex with his bestfriend. Throughout all this dramatic revelations, Kat and her hired escort, Nick, somehow fall in love with each other.

I really tried to like the movie, but I couldn't . Kat, despite her heartfelt emotions, confused me. It seemed like she isn’t even sure of what she really wants. Nick, was obviously, a one-dimensional character, the male equivalent of the stereotype hooker with a heart of gold. Also, for the life of me, I couldn't see how these two ended up having feelings with each other. The director just sort of assumed that we can read these two people’s hearts because I didn't really see much character development of Nick and Kat in the movie.

Furthermore, none of the family members were that memorable. In fact, most of them were quite obnoxious, most especially the sister and the ex. However, it seemed that in this story, even if you did horrible things, in the end, things were easily forgiven and forgotten.

Wedding Date is supposed to be a romantic comedy. However, instead of laughing, I found myself wincing several times in this movie. The only redeeming factor I could think of is the soundtrack, and the chance to ogle Mulroney. Beyond that, if you are looking for a light movie to snuggle in, I recommend that you pick something else.