Romance

A gal who needs a date for a family function gets the best man money can buy in this romantic comedy. Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) is a woman in her mid-thirties living in New York City and has had more than her share of romantic problems -- enough so that she's gotten word that her younger half-sister Amy (Amy Adams) is getting married, and that her mother Bunny (Holland Taylor) and father Victor (Peter Egan) want to fix her up with someone so she won't look alone and miserable for the big day. Adding insult to injury, Kat learns that the best man at the ceremony will be Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield), a former boyfriend who cruelly dumped her without warning two years before. Determined not to show up alone, Kat swallows her pride and hires Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney), a professional escort, who will pose as her boyfriend for a $6,000 fee. Kat and Nick fly to England for the wedding, and her family and friends are all struck by how charming, handsome, and personable Nick is -- and Kat begins wondering if their relationship has to be all business; however, as it turns out, Nick understands Kat far better than she expects. The Wedding Date was based on the novel Asking for Trouble by British author Elizabeth Young. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

With Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo), acclaimed Italian helmer Nanni Moretti steps away from his standard directorial role to essay the lead and co-author the script in a gentle psychological drama directed by Antonello Grimaldi. Moretti stars as Pietro, a film executive whose life takes an irreversible and devastating turn one fateful morning. During a trip to the beach with his brother, Pietro's path intersects with that of a woman, Eleonora (Isabella Ferrari), who is drowning in the ocean; horrified, Pietro rushes in to save her. He subsequently returns home only to discover that his wife, Lara, just died in a nasty falling accident; devastated to the core, this nascent widower must make the necessary psychological accommodations to adjust to life as a single parent, with sole responsibility for raising his ten-year-old daughter, Claudia (Blu Yoshimi). Almost instinctively, as a reaction to Lara's death, Pietro opts to sit and wait for his daughter to finish school each day (in a park across from the school), in lieu of abandoning her to his own priorities and commitments. This means that the fellow's colleagues in the film industry must, by necessity, come to do business with him in the park. Through it all, Pietro remains silently dumbfounded that the tragedy itself hasn't shaken him more, that the grief (the "quiet chaos" of the title) is subtly agonizing instead of grossly traumatizing and debilitating. Nevertheless, he ultimately begins to approach a full realization and acceptance of his loss, and gains an enhanced awareness of himself and others from the potentially crippling events thrust into his path. Valeria Golino (Rain Man) co-stars; Roman Polanski appears in a cameo as one of Pietro's industry colleagues. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Two people develop an unusual relationship that bends the boundaries of time and place in this romantic fantasy. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) is a doctor who lives in a beautiful home by a lake. Forced to move elsewhere, she requests that any correspondence that arrives at the lake house be passed on to her new address. To her surprise, she soon receives a romantic note from Alex Burnham (Keanu Reeves), an architect who lives in the cottage she once called home. However, a look at the postmark on the letter reveals that he lived at the home two years before she did, and that somehow they've come in contact with one another through a space in time. A remake of Lee Hyun-seung's acclaimed Korean romance Il Mare (aka Siworae), The Lake House was the first American production from Argentinean filmmaker Alejandro Agresti; the supporting cast includes Christopher Plummer, Dylan Walsh, and Lynn Collins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An adaptation of a play written by Shelly Garrett, who also wrote Beauty Shop, the dark comedy Battered Love utilizes musical numbers in order to tell the story of a woman suspected of killing her spouse. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide