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The Wedding Date

• 23 February 2005
• The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News

From its opening shot of the Manhattan skyline to its soft-pop soundtrack, The Wedding Date signals movie romance of the effervescent kind. Familiar but never overly broad, this well-cast, crowd-pleasing comedy benefits from a low-key emphasis on character over high jinks. Despite the stock feel of many of its characters and a sometimes laughably obvious script, the film has an energetic grace, directed with fluid efficiency by Clare Kilner. Wedding, which should click especially with females, looks destined for a date with solid boxoffice.

Debra Messing stars as Kat, a New York-based airline employee on her way to London for her half-sister's wedding. In order to convince her family and her ex-fiance -- best man at the upscale shindig -- that she's deliriously happy and not still gazing wistfully at the ring he gave her more than two years ago, she hires a male escort as her dream date. Himbo Nick (Dermot Mulroney), who has all the self-confidence Kat lacks, makes it clear that, for an additional sum, the business transaction can include services of a more intimate nature. She's shocked, just shocked.

When Kat's American mother (Holland Taylor) and English stepdad (Peter Egan) open-mindedly put the visiting couple in one room, it prompts a 21st-century version of the Wall of Jericho in It Happened One Night: a barrier of pillows between them in the bed they share. Like all such walls, it's built for toppling; by the time she's indulged in a night of drunken bachelorette-bash revelry, Kat has all but forgotten about ex Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield).

Kat tells anyone who asks that Nick is a therapist -- the joke being that he is, in a way, breathing you-go-girl affirmations in her ear with knee-weakening expertise. As an unsure gal who would withdraw $6,000 from her 401(k) in order to play-act romantic bliss, Messing is convincing and likable. But Kat isn't the only one play-acting here. Over the course of a week's worth of luxe nuptial dinners, picnics and parties, the wedding couple (well played by Amy Adams and Jack Davenport) are headed on a sure path from picture-book romance to major revelation. In the romantic comedy scheme of things, the repercussions of that twist are momentary at best.

Messing ("Will & Grace") brings a sweet, self-deprecating humor and impressive gift for physical comedy to her first big-screen lead. Limited here by the smoldering restraint he's called upon to deliver, the talented Mulroney more than fits the bill as the sexiest man money can buy. If this hunk-for-hire with a comp lit degree from Brown doesn't seem quite convinced spouting simplistic pearls of ostensible wisdom ("Every woman has exactly the love life she wants"), there's no question that he was a way with a raised eyebrow.

Dana Fox's script, based on the novel Asking for Trouble by Elizabeth Young, offers no shortage of cliches, the most unfortunate being the hackneyed role of the single, sex-obsessed woman who provides comic relief (which Sarah Parish nonetheless puts over with verve).

Wedding just barely dusts the spiderwebs off formula tricks, but Kilner (How to Deal) keeps the party moving. All of it plays out with mild Brit conviviality -- the booze bill alone for this week of nuptial excess could keep a developing country afloat. DP Oliver Curtis and production designer Tom Burton showcase the posh London and Surrey County locations, and costumer Louise Page outfits the cast with a frothy sense of elegance.

THE WEDDING DATE

Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films

26 Films Prods.

Credits:

Director: Clare Kilner

Screenwriter: Dana Fox

Based on the book Asking for Trouble by: Elizabeth Young

Producers: Nathalie Marciano, Michelle Chydzik Sowa, Jessica Bendinger, Paul Brooks

Executive producers: Norm Waitt, Scott Niemeyer, Steve Robbins, Jim Reeve

Director of photography: Oliver Curtis

Production designer: Tom Burton

Music: Blake Neely

Co-producer: Jeff Levine

Costume designer: Louise Page

Editor: Mary Finlay

Cast:

Kat Ellis: Debra Messing

Nick Mercer: Dermot Mulroney

Amy: Amy Adams

Edward Fletcher-Wooten: Jack Davenport

TJ: Sarah Parish

Jeffrey: Jeremy Sheffield

Victor: Peter Egan

Bunny: Holland Taylor

MPAA rating: PG-13

Running time -- 88 minutes

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2005 romantic comedy directed by Clare Kilner

The Wedding Date is a 2005 American romantic comedy film directed by Clare Kilner and starring Debra Messing, Dermot Mulroney, and Amy Adams. Based on the 2002 novel Asking for Trouble by Elizabeth Young, the film is about a single woman who hires a male escort to pose as her boyfriend at her sister's wedding in order to dupe her ex-fiancé, who dumped her a few years prior. Despite the film receiving negative reviews from critics, it was commercially successful, achieving $47 million worldwide at the box office against a budget of $15 million.

Plot[edit]

Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) is a single New Yorker who returns to her parents' house in London to be the maid of honor at her younger half sister Amy's (Amy Adams) wedding. The best man is her former fiancé, who unexpectedly dumped her two years ago. Anxious about confronting and eager to impress him, she hires suave escort Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney) to pose as her boyfriend.

Kat intends to make her former flame, Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield), jealous, but her plan backfires when Nick convinces everyone, including her, that they are madly in love. Kat then feels herself, too, falling for Nick as he slowly falls for her.

The night before the wedding, Kat discovers Amy slept with Jeffrey when they were still together, and he dumped Kat because he believed he was in love with Amy. Nick had discovered this a day earlier, and when Kat finds that out, she feels betrayed from all sides, and puts Nick off. He decides to return to America, and leaves Kat the money she had paid him.

On the wedding day, seeing Kat distressed, her step-father (Peter Egan) asks her if Nick 'is the guy for you'. Kat realizes he is, so she sets off to find him. Meanwhile, just before the wedding ceremony, Amy confesses her betrayal to her fiancé, Ed (Jack Davenport), but professes her love for him. Upset, Ed chases Jeffrey out of the church and down the road. Jeffrey says he gave up on Amy and believes he's done nothing wrong. To which Ed, calls him a "back-stabbing weasel", though Jeffrey believes he's still not in the wrong as he slept with Amy before they dated. Ed shouts out that he was engaged to Kat, proving he was still in the wrong for what he did to Kat.

Nick picks up Ed in a car as Jeffrey disappears into the woods. They talk about love, and Ed decides he loves Amy more than he is angry. To make it clearer he should go back, Nick tells Ed if he went back the couple would end up having great makeup sex. They return to the church, with Nick as 'new' best man. Just before the ceremony, Nick tells Kat he realized he'd "... rather fight with you than make love with anyone else", and they kiss passionately.

Kat and Nick begin a real relationship. Amy and Kat now reconcile, Kat lets go of her anger and forgives Amy as she confessed the truth to Ed. TJ (Sarah Parish), Kat's cousin also apparently enjoys a moment with Woody (Jolyon James) after the wedding. Jeffrey learns absolutely nothing, at the end he is seen trying to get the attention of a female neighbor.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Some outdoor scenes where they are playing rounders were filmed on location in Parliament Hill Fields, overlooking central London. The film was also filmed in parts of Surrey, mainly Shere, Godalming and Guildford.^[1]

Soundtrack[edit]

Reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 11% based on 140 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Critics are leaving The Wedding Date at the altar, calling it shopworn, bland, and lightweight."^[2] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[3]

The film was a reasonable financial success grossing $47 million, about three times its $15 million budget.

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