'Date' is lackluster and unbelievable

Romantic comedies -- they're a difficult subject to tackle. They're formulaic and predictable, but sometimes they're the perfect pick-me-up on a lonely Saturday night. With that in mind, if you hate romantic comedies, you'll hate "The Wedding Date." If you like romantic comedies, this movie is far from the classic level of "When Harry Met Sally."\nThe plot is a direct takeoff of "Pretty Woman," but with roles reversed. The beautiful Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) hires gorgeous escort, Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney), for her sister's wedding to make her ex-fiancée envious. Of course we all know that they'll grudgingly fall in love and live happily ever after, but with this romantic comedy, it's hard to tell when the romance begins.\nThe plot is full of holes, the epitome of which is identifying exactly when the couple goes from being business partners to lovers. It seems like all of a sudden the audience is supposed to know that they truly do care for each other, but we never get a sweet moment revealing true affection.\nThe only instance that comes close is when Nick decides not to charge Kat for sex, which could be considered sweet if he hadn't failed to tell her that they had sex at all. Maybe in this twisted world it's romantic to not tell someone that you had drunk sex and didn't charge them for it. But the audience is left wondering if she shouldn't get an AIDS test considering this man is, after all, a glorified hooker.\nGiven the lack of a romantic turning point, it's not hard to accept other Grand Canyon-sized gaps in logic. For instance, Kat is attending her half-sister's wedding in England, where they grew up with their American mother and British stepfather, but Kat's sister has an American accent. Curious. To confuse the nationalities further, Kat's former fiancée is living in England but definitely seems Australian. Sure exoticism is sexy, but this jumble of countries and accents is just confusing.\nDon't get the wrong idea, Kat and Nick make an adorable couple on the surface, but their chemistry is lacking. And given the fact that Kat is supposed to be an anal-retentive plan-aholic, it's hard to imagine she wouldn't come up with some background story before walking into the family reunion.\nThe audience might have been able to overlook all other shortcomings if the ending was even slightly believable, but let's just say that these characters' ability of forgiveness is absolutely, well, unbelievable. The movie just wraps up way too neatly in way too short a time.\nSure, fans of romantic comedies want to live in an idealized world for two hours (or, in this case, an hour and a half), but they also want to think that world is possible. In this case, the world of male escorts turned faithful boyfriends is far out of reach.