The Wedding Date. REVIEW

Dermot Mulroney's character is a romance novel fantasy, but that doesn't stop him from being subtle and intriguing. Debra Messing's character not only discovers Mulroney through an article in the Sunday New York Times magazine, but also appears to have discovered herself in the spring fashion issue. But she is nevertheless lovable and touching.

The premise: Kat Ellis (Messing) is a British woman living in New York, who must fly back to London for her sister's wedding. The issue: Jeff, the groom's best man, is Kat's ex-fiance, who dumped her. The solution: She hires a male escort named Nick (Mulroney) to accompany her and play the role of her fiance, allowing Jeef to be jealous.

The movie develops the usual assortment of impossible relatives and fun wedding activities; some scenes look like they're posed for snapshots in The Tatler, a British society magazine devoted to pretending to like twits. "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Pretty Woman," and "My Best Friend's Wedding" are expertly condensed into "One Wedding, an Ex-Best Friend, and a Pretty Man," with Mulroney (who played the Best Friend in the original) as the escort with a golden heart.