Made of Honor

"Imagine the ultimate chick-flick leading man. He's foxy and a bit dangerous, with merry dancing eyes and a way of caressing a barbed wisecrack just so. Patrick Dempsey is not quite that guy. He looks good, but with a squinty gaze that doesn't radiate much light (he could be Sean Penn's stockbroker brother). He's sweet, steady, and likable, but someone to count on rather than someone to sweep you away. All of which makes him perfect as the steadfast best-friend-who's-really-a-romantic in Made of Honor."

"Tom (Patrick Dempsey) had one good idea in college. He invented the coffee collar, that cardboard ring that fits around a cup and keeps a customer's hand from burning. Today, Tom's a self-made (and self-absorbed) millionaire who spends his evenings with random bimbos and his days with best friend Hannah (Michelle Monaghan).Though they form the perfect pair, Tom doesn't view Hannah as girlfriend material until she leaves Manhattan on a six-week business trip to Scotland. Like a lovesick pup, Tom fidgets and whines until his loved one returns. Too bad for him Hannah's baggage includes a strapping Scottish fianc�(Kevin McKidd)."

You know from a song list that includes Smash Mouth, Lenny Kravitz and Kanye West that "Made of Honor" has something a bit edgier in mind than the usual, soft-focused wedding bell high jinks. For the most part, that's exactly what it delivers -- an amusing, smartly cast romantic comedy told from a guy's perspective. Given that the lead in question is none other than Dr. McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey, the Columbia Pictures release should perform honorably with its targeted female audience but perhaps not as strongly as Sony might like, considering that its competition comes in the form of an equally appealing Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man," opening the same day. There's also the fact that male-centric rom-coms traditionally tend not to perform as strongly as those told from a female POV, but there's still much to appreciate here.

Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) can't stand Tom (Patrick Dempsey) when they meet at Cornell in 1998. Suddenly, it's 2008 and the two are platonic best friends with no explanation of how they bonded or why they never hooked up, particularly in light of the sexual tension that's introduced about three minutes later. After Hannah takes a work trip to Scotland and comes home with a fianc�(Kevin McKidd of "Journeyman"), she makes her best pal the maid of honor and�jealousy alert�motivates the emasculated sap, who finally realizes he wants more than random, meaningless sex, to try to break up the wedding.

MADE of Honor" is something old, it's something new, it's something borrowed and it's something that blows. When Harry and Sally went to see "My Best Friend's Wedding," they could have written a funnier, more original script in the time it takes to eat a box of Milk Duds. Like H & S, Tom (a McDreary Patrick Dempsey, supposed to be 32 but actually 42, with a Richard Nixon stubble that ages him further) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) are a lout and a priss, respectively, who meet in college, never sleep together and go the BFF route.