The Wedding Date Genre: Comedy/Romance Rated: PG-13 Directed by: CLAIRE KILNER Written by: DANA FOX Starring: DEBRA MESSING, DERMOT MULRONEY, AMY ADAMS, JACK DAVENPORT, SARAH PARISH, JEREMY SHEFFIELD, HOLLAND TAYLOR Released by: Universal In Short: Although a textbook comedy, the sweet slapstick of actress Debra Messing will have you laughing out loud.

The Wedding Date
Not-so-surprisingly Sweet
By Cherie Saunders

New Yorker Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) needs a date to her half-sister’s wedding in London, and gigolo Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney) is the perfect man for the job. Shelling out thousands of dollars from her 401K to finance her made-to-order boyfriend, Kat briefs the popular Manhattan escort on her dysfunctional family: her half-sister Amy (Amy Adams), whom she rarely gets along with; Amy’ fiancée Edward (Jack Davenport); and Edward’s best man Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield), who just so happens to be Kat’s ex-boyfriend.

Kat’s plan is three-fold. She wants to parade her new man around the ex, to become the envy of her friends, and to keep her meddling mother Bunny (Holland Taylor) from pressuring her to find a boyfriend and get married. As Kat and Nick spend more time with each other, her face-saving business arrangement begins to melt away, exposing deeper feelings.

A textbook romantic comedy, “The Wedding Date” follows the conventions of the genre to a tee with no real surprises. However, the script, penned by Dana Fox, sparkles with such hilarity that you might just overlook Nick’s unexplained decision to suddenly give up the escort business, or the warp speed with which the two fall in love. Tack on the wit and humor of the actors---led by the clumsy charm of Messing’s superb slapstick and Sarah Parish’s scene-stealing zingers as Kat’s best friend---and “The Wedding Date” turns out to be a laugh-out-loud delight.