''The Wedding Date'' is a 2005 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by Clare Kilner and starring

Debra Messing Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing received short-lived roles on television series such as '' Ned and Stacey'' on Fox (1995–1997) and ...

, Dermot Mulroney, and

Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...

. Based on the 2002 novel ''Asking for Trouble'' by Elizabeth Young, the film is about a single woman who hires a male escort to pose as her boyfriend at her sister's wedding in order to dupe her ex-fiancé, who dumped her a few years prior. Despite the film receiving negative reviews from critics, it was commercially successful, achieving $47 million worldwide at the box office against a budget of $15 million.

Plot

Kat Ellis is a single New Yorker who returns to her parents' house in London to be the

maid of honor Bridesmaids are members of the bride's party in a Western traditional wedding ceremony. A bridesmaid is typically a young woman and often a close friend or relative. She attends to the bride on the day of a wedding or marriage ceremony. Tradit ...

at her younger half-sister Amy's wedding. The

best man A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...

is her former

fiancé An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...

, who unexpectedly dumped her two years ago. Anxious about confronting and eager to impress him, she hires suave escort Nick Mercer to pose as her boyfriend. Kat intends to make her former flame, Jeffrey, jealous, but her plan backfires when Nick convinces everyone, including her, that they are madly in love. Kat then feels herself, too, falling for Nick as he slowly falls for her. The night before the wedding, Kat discovers Amy slept with Jeffrey when they were still together, and he dumped Kat because he believed he was in love with Amy. Nick had discovered this a day earlier, and when Kat finds that out, she feels betrayed from all sides, and puts Nick off. He decides to return to America, and leaves Kat the money she had paid him. On the wedding day, seeing Kat distressed, her step-father asks her if Nick 'is the guy for you'. Kat realizes he is, so she sets off to find him. Meanwhile, just before the wedding ceremony, Amy confesses her betrayal to her fiancé, Ed, but professes her love for him. Upset, Ed chases Jeffrey out of the church and down the road. Jeffrey says he gave up on Amy and believes he's done nothing wrong. To which Ed, calls him a "back-stabbing weasel", though Jeffrey believes he's still not in the wrong as he slept with Amy before they dated. Ed shouts out that he was engaged to Kat, proving he was still in the wrong for what he did to Kat. Nick picks up Ed in a car as Jeffrey disappears into the woods. They talk about love, and Ed decides he loves Amy more than he is angry. To make it clearer he should go back, Nick tells Ed if he went back the couple would end up having great makeup sex. They return to the church, with Nick as 'new' best man. Just before the ceremony, Nick tells Kat he realized he'd "... rather fight with you than make love with anyone else", and they kiss passionately. Kat and Nick begin a real relationship. Amy and Kat now reconcile, Kat lets go of her anger and forgives Amy as she confessed the truth to Ed. TJ, Kat's cousin also apparently enjoys a moment with Woody after the wedding. Jeffrey learns absolutely nothing, at the end he is seen trying to get the attention of a female neighbor.

Cast

Production

Some outdoor scenes where they are playing

rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running arou ...

were filmed on location in Parliament Hill Fields, overlooking central London. The film was also filmed in parts of Surrey, mainly

Shere Shere is a village in the Guildford district of Surrey, England east south-east of Guildford and west of Dorking, centrally bypassed by the A25. It is a small still partly agricultural village chiefly set in the wooded ' Vale of Holmesdale' ...

, Godalming and Guildford.

Soundtrack

* " Breathless" by

The Corrs The Corrs are an Irish family band that combine pop rock with traditional Irish themes within their music. The group consists of the Corr siblings, Andrea (lead vocals, tin whistle, mandolin, ukulele), Sharon (violin, keyboards, vocals), Carol ...

* "Serenade for Lovers" by John Arkell and

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

* "Moonlight Waltz" by John Arkell * "Grosvenor House" by Terry Day * "King's Road" by

Michael Melvoin Mike Melvoin (May 10, 1937February 22, 2012) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He served as chairman and president of The Recording Academy and worked as a prolific studio musician, recording with Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, ...

* "The Lavender Room" by Dick Walter * "

When We Are Together "When We Are Together" is a song by Scottish band Texas from their fifth studio album, '' The Hush'' (1999). It was released as the third and final single from the album on 15 November 1999. The song debuted and peaked at 12 in the United Kingd ...

" by Texas * " All Out of Love" by

Air Supply Air Supply is a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975. It consists of Englishman Graham Russell (vocals, guitar) and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five ...

* " One Fine Day" by

The Chiffons :''The Chiffons also briefly recorded under the name The Four Pennies; for the British band of the latter name see The Four Pennies.'' The Chiffons are an American girl group originating from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, in 1960. Hist ...

* "

Boogie Shoes "Boogie Shoes" is a funk/disco song by KC and the Sunshine Band, which first appeared on their 1975 self-titled album. The song became a hit after it appeared on the ''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtrack in 1977. It was subsequently released as ...

" by KC & The Sunshine Band * "Lovedance" by Dave Rogers and Paul Shaw * "I Want You to Dance with Me" by Amy Ward * "I Got the Feeling" by James Brown * "Secret" by Maroon 5 * " Sway" by

Michael Bublé Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...

* " Home" by Michael Bublé * " Save the Last Dance for Me" by Michael Bublé

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film holds an approval rating of 11% based on 140 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Critics are leaving ''The Wedding Date'' at the altar, calling it shopworn, bland, and lightweight." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. The film was a reasonable financial success grossing $47 million, about three times its $15 million budget.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wedding Date 2005 films 2005 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films 2000s English-language films Films about male prostitution in the United States Films about weddings Films based on British novels Films based on romance novels Films directed by Clare Kilner Films scored by Blake Neely Films set in London Films set in Surrey Films shot in London Gold Circle Films films Universal Pictures films 2000s American films