RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie Thread!)

[M.10rda]

THE WEDDING DATE (2005):
Another romcom I agreed to watch w/ my wife - okay, mostly watch, I dipped out for a while in the middle to do chores. I've endured worse. There are several cute lines/moments that were obviously calculated in a lab and tested on human captives to elicit sappy reactions. The direction is generally glib but it does move along fairly briskly. There is some nice UK location work. Amy Adams is third-billed, either right before or right after her breakout Oscar nomination for JUNEBUG (in other words before she didn't have to accept roles in disposable romcoms). She's a blonde here though, meh.

Star Debra Messing is a redhead  and gives a performance that helps one understand how she could have a hit TV show though also how she never had much of a career in movies. The hunky gigolo she hires to be her wedding date  is played by Dermot Mulroney, who gives a performance that reminds me how he could keep getting work in movies but also reminds me of why (after 30-35 years) I still can't distinguish him from Dylan McDermott. Of course the major flaw in this movie is the premise: Why does a successful career woman who is also a beautiful fun redhead need to pay Dermot Mulroney thousands of dollars to go to a wedding with her? He's a very generic hunky guy, of which there are plenty in both the US and UK. To her credit,   Madame 10rda says Mulroney is unattractive because he has a hairlip. She has better eyesight than I do but I see no hairlip - I mean, young Joaquin Phoenix, now he had a hairlip (which I guess he's had fixed). But then again, if you were a wealthy hot woman who felt like she needed to throw her money away on a gigiolo, Joaquin Phoenix would probably be more fun to take to a wedding...    2.5/5