The Wedding Date

One of the most incompetent films in recent memory, The Wedding Date begins with an expository phone-call wherein the lead character explains the entire plot, which is basically that she’s got to go to her younger sister’s wedding, where her ex-fiancé will be the best man, and so she’s hired an attractive escort to pose as her new boyfriend. Not content with stealing the plots of classic films, writer Dana Fox (which may be a pseudonym, as I can find no other trace of him/her) decides instead to steal from the mediocre romantic comedies of the ’80s and the even worse sitcoms of the ’90s. (Wasn’t this the plot to three separate episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel Air?) Some horrible editing decisions including leaving in a scene wherein two characters talk about another scene that was obviously deleted from the film, tremendously lack-luster cinematography and a script that reads like it was spit out by a machine that scans bad comedies for their worst jokes and least compelling characters make this an utter disappointment, even if one’s expectations were lowered by the awful previews. The only upside is an interesting performance by Dermot Mulroney as the man-whore, but he has so little script to work with that it barely seems worth his time to have created such an odd and interesting acting style for this role. Not recommended for those who have working cerebral cortices, though the comatose might enjoy the effect of sitting in a movie theater where no one is laughing.