Monday, November 21, 2011

Episode 55.5 - The Wedding Date Review 6/10

The Wedding Date - 2005 - Clare Kilner

So, I’m going to lay down a scenario for you. See if you can spot the laziness in the following conversation:

DIRECTOR: We are going to make a romantic comedy.
SMART PERSON: Why is it a romantic comedy?
DIRECTOR: Because two people live happily ever after at the end of it.
SMART PERSON: Why do they live happily ever after at the end of it.
DIRECTOR: Because it’s a romantic comedy.
SMART PERSON: …So wait, why is it a romantic comedy?
DIRECTOR: Because two people live happily ever after at the end of it.
SMART PERSON: But…why do we believe they live happily ever after at the end of it?
DIRECTOR: BECAUSE IT’S A ROMANTIC COMEDY!!!

Why is this rule so hard? If we don’t think the couple will make it after the movie is over, you have failed your job as a romantic comedy. Period. The Wedding Date is a movie about male escort Nick (Dermot Mulroney) who gets hired to be a wedding date for Kat (Debra Messing) for her sister’s wedding because Kat’s family is full of assholes that like rubbing in the fact that she’s single and therefore, pathetic. Nick and Kat don’t establish a relationship based on likes or understandings or agreeing on important life issues or anything like that, instead, like a male and female lead in an action movie, they develop a “love” and attraction based on the sheer fact that they are both in an uncomfortable position together. I’m sorry, this never works. There’s never a sequel to a movie where a relationship is started this way and remained happy through the rest of the film series. It just doesn’t work and if it’s your fucking genre, nobody’s buying it! NERRRR!

In the midst of all this there’s a whole uncovering of secrets of people sleeping with people and it’s all the fault of some asshole guy whose snobby bastardism is only included because that movie’s too damn afraid of depth. Oh, why is this so common?! It’s going to knock it down a couple of pegs on my ol’ rating system, however there are plenty of things this movie did very well and for that it’s not going to get completely sunk and in fact it’s going to wind up with a decent score…for this…genre.
Kat’s family is a big bunch of assholes and I was actually very surprised at how much I was willing to accept that the whole premise of this movie (hiring a date for a wedding) actually made a bit of sense. I probably would too, so I appreciate the cleverness of the execution of this premise. Along with that, Kat and Nick are very likable characters. Not like “makes up for the fact that they still are pretty shitty together” like, but composed, refined as they need to be, and intelligent, however, too often did they just succumb to some random new responsibility (especially Nick, who became the guy that knew everything about nothing he actually knew about), throw away this discomfort they had as if it never existed and then they are right back to the loathing and the hating of being there, everyone’s mood was just too inconsistent.

A lot of people I talked to knew someone or were someone where this was on the list of their favorite movies. Honestly, I can understand why. It is smart and the story around, but not including, the romance was crafted very well, with likable characters that followed a very strong pace if you just ignored the little personality inconsistencies. For me, they’re a big deal sadly and from an enjoyment factor, I would give this a 7 or even an 8 out of ten. But taking all things into consideration, The Wedding Date winds up with a 6 dustbusters out of 10 from me.

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