The Wedding Date Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		1.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

The Wedding Date Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 22, 2018

Consider the following storylines and films, films which are in their own ways staples of the RomCom genre:

• Movie about the people in the wedding: 27 Dresses
• Movie about falling for the person getting married: My Best Friend's Wedding
• Movie about the bride or groom not wanting to get married: Runaway Bride
• Movie about the wedding planning process: Father of the Bride
• Movie about the family a character is marrying into: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

The Wedding Date is a tentacled hybrid of all of these, incorporating what are several main storylines from other films into a single movie, trying to find the drama and the humor in awkward families, obnoxious brides, broken romances, and the people who make the wedding happen, or not.

Kat (Debra Messing) is headed back home two years after her ex, Jeffery (Jeremy Sheffield), left her at the altar. She plans to attend her sister Amy's (Amy Adams) wedding, a wedding in which Jeffery will serve as the best man. In an effort to appear less the pathetic ex girlfriend, Kat decides to hire a male escort named Nick (Dermot Mulroney) to play the part of her boyfriend in front her friends and family for the wedding weekend. Things begin well and the possibility of real romance even materializes, but can Kat really find love in the arms of a hired gun?

While the plot essentials may seem lifted straight out of a Hallmark channel movie, The Wedding Date’s point of interest is its addition of extra spice in the story. But it still faces an identity crisis. It cannot decide if it wants to be a Comedy or Drama and the result is a frustrating mixed-signal movie. And it’s not like that combination is some untenable marriage. Many films, in fact all of those listed above, are more than capable of pulling off the funny moments while digging deeply into the drama. Some films, though, are better served sticking to one or the other. The Wedding Date falls well short of being a good drama and falls short in its funny business. Neither are well versed or well rounded, the intersections are lacking, and the characters are not drawn to satisfaction to bring out either end of the spectrum with any clarity, never mind merge them into a seamless experience.

According to the audio commentary track, the story of The Wedding Date was originally conceived as a darker film, so it’s perhaps no surprise that a film that underwent a significant tonal shift at some point along the production process didn’t wind up working out as well as it might have had it began its life on the road it eventually traveled to completion. Perhaps as a result of that tonal imbalance, editing feels choppy, even as the film maneuvers through essential story ebbs and flows: girl meets boy, boy and girl lie to the world, boy and girl have sex, all of a sudden boy and girl are in love, and the point of tension that invariably arrives prior to the final resolution comes into play. All feel rushed, inorganically developed, poorly assembled and absent depth and definition. It’s a silly RomCom, of course, not a film that was ever likely to have much meat on its bones (even under its supposedly more dark and dramatic roots), but there’s an inescapable feeling that things could stand a little more scrutiny, a more solid foundation to hold together its wobbly and wide-reaching ebbs and flows.

Messing and Mulroney do a fine job of playing the parts of the couple in the process of falling for one another while the rest of the world believes they already have. The chemistry their characters share feels realistic (enough) and the fairly well described and relatable issues through which they must work lend realism to their relationship. To be sure, it isn't the acting that’s the problem. It’s that The Wedding Date feels incomplete, like there’s a big, gaping hole in the middle where something, whether more deeply explored narratives or that darker plot line, might have gone. The film plods through with enough spirit from the performances to carry it through, but its inability to focus or find its center keep it from reaching the highest genre heights.

The Wedding Date Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Videophiles will quickly break up with The Wedding Date after watching this disaster of a 1080p transfer. Severe wobble seen at the opening titles is only the beginning of an atrocious Blu-ray presentation from Universal. Edge enhancement, severe digital processing, noise reduction, pasty skin textures, and various splotches and random vertical lines are amongst the most egregious offenders. Very rarely has a movie look this flat, artificial, and ugly on Blu-ray. There's no sense of depth or distance between characters and backgrounds. The image's artificiality runs sky high. It's clearly sourced from a very old master from a DVD release that renders the movie almost unwatchable at this resolution, at least from a videophile's perspective. Colors are at least handled with decent vitality and saturation, though the horrible image processing flatness them and renders them less than truly dynamic. This is one of the worst releases of the year in terms of video quality.

The Wedding Date Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wedding Date's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is at least fairly spunky. Music enjoys healthy vigor and solid dispersement. That's really the only one big and exciting sound element in the film. Various support effects filter through with decent sense of placement and clarity. Dialogue is largely fine, though there are times when shallowness and struggling prioritization come into play. The sound drops out for a split second at the 55:48 mark and again a few seconds later, but no other serious issues were detected.

The Wedding Date Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Wedding Date's Blu-ray contains three extras, all of which must be accessed in-film via a crude pop-up menu. No top menu is included.

• Deleted Scenes: (1080i upscaled, 10:04): Includes Kat Meets Woman on Plane, Kat Explains Pub Golf Drinking Game, TJ Wins Pub Golf & Kat Tries to Talk to Amy, Mom Sees Nick Exit the Boat, Breakfast With the Family & Kat Picks Up the Rings, Dad Answers Nick's Cell Phone, Nick and Amy Talk Further, and Mom Reminisces Outside Hair Salon.
• A Date with Debra (1080i upscaled, 7:40): Debra Messing discusses the film and her role in it. She covers how different scenes were filmed (working around her allergies to flowers), her fellow cast members, and filming the nude and love scenes. It also covers character fates after the movie.
• Audio Commentary: Actress Debra Messing only occasionally pops in to discusses the costumes, sets, plot, character backgrounds, and the intricacies and problems encountered while filming the movie.

The Wedding Date Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Wedding Date throws in about half a dozen RomCom conventions and plot lines into a single 89-minute film (79 minutes sans credits; yes, a RomCom has 10 minutes of credits). It's hit-or-miss, feeling lacking in substance and focus but scraping by on a few good performances and several fun scenes. The film cannot match, let along eclipse, the genre's best for laughs, heartfelt sincerity, or longevity, but genre fans should find it a passable little excursion into matters of the (hired) heart. Universal's Blu-ray is terrible, at least if one considers the video presentation as the most important component on the disc. Audio is passable and the extras are fine. Videophiles need stay far away and fans should steer clear as well, hopefully sending a message to Universal that video quality practices this terrible are not acceptable.