The Wedding Date (2005) * * *

Directed by:   Clare Kilner

Starring:  Debra Messing, Dermot Mulroney, Holland Taylor, Amy Adams, Jeremy Sheffield, Peter Egan

The Wedding Date is a romantic comedy that is slight, breezy, and inconsequential, but sometimes those are good things.    At roughly eighty minutes of actual running time, the film hits it and quits it efficiently.   It is also not entirely predictable as one might expect.   There is thankfully no scene in which the real relationship between its two protagonists is discovered.  Such a development would've added running time and perhaps broken the mood.   

Debra Messing stars as Kat, a New Yorker who is dateless as her half-sister's wedding in London approaches.    The best man is Kat's ex-boyfriend who jilted her, so in order to make him jealous she hires a confident, charming male escort named Nick (Mulroney) to pose as her boyfriend when they attend the wedding.    Nick is a fairly sophisticated man-ho who confesses he holds a degree in literature from Brown University and has even moonlighted as a columnist for the New York Times.     His ability to know what women want makes him good at his job.  He suspects Kat may want something more than merely just to make her ex jealous, although she may not know it herself.

Messing, as she was on Will & Grace, is engaging and has a great smile. She is neurotic to be sure, but who wouldn't be after being kicked to the curb right before her wedding?   Mulroney takes a standard part and adds some mystery to it.  "It must be nice to be paid just for being you," Kat tells Nick.  Nick replies, "Who says I'm being me?" Nick has made his living out of being what others want him to be.     Yet,, he is intelligent and not insensitive to Kat's insecurities.    

The Wedding Date ends as you would expect, but enough care was taken to make it an above-average rom-com.     I've noticed this is a rather short review, but there isn't much to dissect.   The Wedding Date is just long enough and just well done enough.  It could've easily have been dreck, but it works out better for all involved.