The Wedding Date

It seems that no matter how popular the television series, the stars of small screen sitcoms seem singularly unable to make the leap to the big screen. The way that such shows are cast means that the main characters are vaguely typecast; I mean, is Matthew Perry ever successful when not playing the sarcastic one? Well, erm, nope. Being so popular in Friends has largely made it impossible for him to leave Mr Bing behind. As is par for the course for such actors, Debra Messing, the female half of Will & Grace, makes her debut as a leading lady in The Wedding Date, thus getting Hollywood ever closer to the bottom of the barrel for titles with 'wedding' in them. Despite her small screen popularity, the film sank without trace and its vaguely Richard Curtis Britishness didn't stave off some fairly poor reviews.

Blake Neely is one of those composers who generally lurks in the background and whose credits largely consist of conducting, televisions scoring and a number for additional music (notably Pirates of the Caribbean and The Last Samurai). Every genre has its film music conventions and the romantic comedy is perhaps the most formulaic and so that his score for The Wedding Date is exactly what you expect, is rather unsurprising, but despite this, Neely acquits himself admirably. Invitation to a Wedding is a perfect opener - calling it an overture is perhaps a trifle portentous, but it certainly sets the mood, presenting his pleasant and engaging main theme perfectly. It's a typical strings and woodwinds number, but a few subtle harmonic twists make it stand a little from the crowd.

As a rather talky comedy and not one of epic comedy disaster (such as Meet the Parents), the tone is generally gentle and fairly light on the drama. Only the odd patch of material breaks up the other chipper tone - notably Discovery, although this is followed by a wonderful, Rachel Portman or Patrick Doyle style treatment of the main theme in To the Wedding, only disappointing through its brevity. Perhaps an odd score to make a limited edition as charming romantic comedy scores are fairly plentiful and while this is perhaps a cut above average, not the kind of album that many collectors are likely to go out of their way to pick up. This is not to say it's not commendable, as it is, and if Neely can stand out and deliver the goods on a fairly well worn genre, I suspect that given something more substantial, he could be well worth looking out for in future.