Starring: Debra Messing, Dermot
Mulroney
Cert: 12A
Released: 22nd
April
Kat’s (Messing) sister is getting
married and unfortunately for her, her ex-boyfriend is the best man. She is so
insecure that of course she can’t go without having a gorgeous boyfriend on her
arm so she buys Nick (Mulroney) for $6,000 to escort her. They abide each other
at first, confusion and misinformation follow and eventually they realise that,
really, they actually do love each other.
So really this is just Pretty Woman with the roles reversed;
Mulroney is the prostitute – and he does offer the full service for the right
price – with Messing as the attractive lead with more money than sense to try to
get someone ‘real’ to actually like her.
It’s an old premise, predictable
plot, and lacklustre jokes that allows a sit-com cast to trundle along on
autopilot for 90 minutes and the only time you need to actually think about the
film is when the credits are rolling and the question, ‘And?’ might pop into
your head.
In an attempt to show some acting
diversity, Messing plays Kat as ‘too nice for her own good’ which then lacks the
acerbic wit that she is renowned for in Will & Grace. She’s ditzy, he plays
it straight, the secondary characters are all morally flawed and the most
interesting and entertaining characters are the ones with only three lines in
the entire film.
Am I harsh because I’m outside
the film’s targeted demographic and maybe I ‘just don’t get it’? I hope that’s
not the case otherwise the market research for this would be a pretty damning
indictment on womankind.
A brainless, lazy reworking of a
‘classic’ feel good film that can’t even aspire to that in the end when the
characters have no emotional depth, there’s no connection and ultimately the
audience just doesn’t give a damn.
However,
with the majority of films leaving
Hollywood
in a similar manner it
is by no means the worst film ever and should raise the occasional chuckle if
you’ve got nothing better to do.
