The Wedding Date

I never cease to wonder why certain movies get green-lit despite the idiocy of the central conceit, and this is a good example.  Intended as a break-out role for television sitcom actress Debra Messing, I can't see that this will have furthered her career on the big screen.  OK, it's probably a perfectly acceptable chick-flick for not-too-fussy viewers, but the central concept was completely absurd.  Airline executive Messing must attend her snooty half-sister's wedding in London where her own ex-fiance (who dumped her) is to be best man.  So she hires a very expensive male escort (Dermot Mulroney) to accompany her, to pose as her new true love, and to make the old flame jealous.  As one does!  Of course Mulroney is the creme de la creme of men for hire, not that I would fancy him, and of course despite the odds they fall in love.  Maybe she should have reminded herself that he was a self-described "hooker"; oh well, if the concept can work in reverse for Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman", the people behind these shennanigans probably thought it would play out again.  Perhaps it does for people with short memories or for those not too bothered by dubious screen chemistry.