The Wedding Date (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Debra Messing (Actor) Featurette-Debra Messing Featurette Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	85:18
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Clare Kilner
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Debra Messing Dermot Mulroney Amy Adams Jack Davenport Sarah Parish Jeremy Sheffield Peter Egan Holland Taylor Jolyon James C. Gerod Harris Martin Barrett Jay Simon Danielle Lewis
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Blake Neely

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Wedding Date is pretty standard romantic comedy fare. Not bad, but nothing great either.

    Debra Messing plays Kat, a 30-something year old career woman who is so desperate for a date for her younger sister's wedding that she hires a male escort called Nick (Dermot Mulroney.) Kat meets him for the first time en-route to the wedding, pays him $6000 US for a few day's work (where do I sign up?) and they head off to meet her family. To add to the emotional uncertainty of it all, the reason she needs to pay someone to be her date is because she had her heart broken and her ex-fiancée will be at the wedding.

    Without spoiling it all for you, Kat is a beautiful (if somewhat insecure) woman and Nick is a handsome, self-assured man. Will sparks fly? Will her ex interfere? I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, but I have to give the screenplay credit - there was a genuine surprise, although overall it was a bit formulaic and rushed.

    An American at an English wedding? Unfortunately, Four Weddings and a Funeral this is not. With Will & Grace in its final season in the US, Debra Messing could really do with a breakthrough movie role. Sadly for her career, this doesn't quite cut it. She does a good enough job, but the material really limits how far she could go with this role. I get the impression that with a bit of luck and a good role Mulroney could be an A list star. I have liked him in other roles, but was unimpressed by this outing.

    While I have seen worse rom-coms lately (like the awful Monster in-Law) there is not really anything that stands out here to recommend it with any enthusiasm.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is pretty mediocre and is really let down in a few areas.

    Colour is hit and miss, For the most part, skin tones and softer colours look good. Black levels looked good, but some bolder colours like red seemed oversaturated in a few scenes.

    Edge enhancement is present throughout and is especially painful in wide outdoor shots.

    MPEG artefacts tend to hurt (check out the pixelization glitch at 6:37) and there are a few scenes where there is that painful distracting shimmer.

    Grain tends to plague the film too, especially in lighter scenes. Whilst not a distraction on my TV, it was certainly noticeable on the projector.

    Considering this is a new film, the video transfer should have been much better than this.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are 2 audio tracks available for the film's audio; English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    I found the audio track to be the most solid aspect of the disc.

    While a relatively front-heavy track (not surprising for a rom-com), the surrounds still got a workout with a lot of music. There was no subwoofer action, but it wasn't expected for this kind of film.

    Dialogue came through clearly and the track was well balanced.

    There is also an English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) track with Debra Messing.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Introduction  Audio & Animation

Audio Commentary-Debra Messing (Actor)

    It's pretty obvious that she did little to no preparation for the track, but she comes across as a very sincere, likable person. Enjoyed the UK shoot, loves Mulroney, yada yada yada. Amusing, but it gets a bit old.

Featurette-Debra Messing (7:41)

    Pretty standard fare - an interview with Messing cutting back to scenes from the movie. She seems like a really nice person... I think I have become a Messing fan! Neither revealing nor particularly entertaining though.

Theatrical Trailer   

    The R1 version has a little bit more than the R4 does.

    R1 includes 8 deleted scenes and trailers for seven films.

    R1 is slightly better if you are keen for deleted scenes, otherwise buy on price.

    The video is a severe let down for such a recent film.

    The audio is pretty good.

    The extras are OK, with a decent commentary and short featurette.

    Overall, good for a rental with your significant other or for a girl's night, but not much long-term appeal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall