With her ex-fiance standing as the best man at her sister’s wedding, Kat hires Nick, a male escort, to accompany her to the wedding in London to make him jealous. Of course, things take a turn when Kat finds herself falling for Nick while still sorting through her issues with her ex.
The Wedding Date has a great cast. While I’ve never been a massive fan of Debra Messing, I thought she was pretty charming and funny in this film as Kat, a woman with massive insecurities and awkwardness. Dermot Mulroney has grown on me quite a bit over the years, and I enjoy him in most things, though I really wish he could be given a rom-com role with more depth. We get to know Kat enough, given that this is her sister’s wedding and her family surrounds her.
Nick is never really fleshed out, though Mulroney does well enough despite how little he’s given to do. He’s an escort hired by Kat to accompany her to this wedding… that’s about all we know about him. Sure, we hear him answer some of Kat’s questions about his profession, but his job has no bearing on the plot whatsoever.
He could have just been a friend or some random guy she met and offered to pay money to play her boyfriend for the weekend. Maybe the film and the role itself would have been more interesting if his profession had come into play at some point. To me, that’s a much bigger, more interesting romantic conflict than what you ultimately get.
We also get the excellent Jack Davenport and a young, blondeAmy Adams as the soon-to-be newlyweds. Jeremy Sheffield and Sarah Bishop round out the cast as the bland Jeffrey, Kat’s ex-fiancé and Ed’s best man, and TJ, one of Kat and Amy’s closest friends, who was delightfully funny but was sadly underutilized.
I think the issue with a 90-minute movie (less if you factor in the opening and closing credits) is that there’s not much time for character development. Some of the supporting cast could have been removed from the film without affecting the plot. While The Wedding Date was briskly paced, I think that was a detriment. Messing and Mulroney had decent chemistry, but I’m not sure they were together on screen long enough to make their whirlwind romance believable.
The family drama and the revealed betrayal are quickly swept under the rug, with no real consequences for the parties involved. I think it would have been more beneficial to the story to reveal the “secret” earlier, so Nick and Kat could have dealt with the heightened emotional stakes together. As is, the conflict driving Kat and Nick apart felt slightly contrived.
I found The Wedding Date to be enjoyable enough. I didn’t outwardly cringe or roll my eyes. It has a fantastic cast, but the script is lacking and full of rom-com tropes that aren’t executed well enough to get a pass. There was potential, but the movie didn’t rise to the occasion. I also know The Wedding Date was based on a book, so maybe I’ll read it and see if it’s any better.
Watched: 06/18/2021
Notable Song: All Out of Love by Air Supply
