Romantic ‘Dress’ Patterned on Cliches

Years ago, a wedding dress was lovingly handmade for nuptials that never came to pass. While packing the gown for storage, the would-be bride said a sort of incantation over it, hoping that one day it would be worn by an exceptionally lucky woman.

When the dress resurfaces in the present day, it falls into the hands of a bumbling Cupid who inadvertently passes it from woman to woman. Magic seems to touch each life that the dress enters.

Sweet idea, right? But something went wrong as “The Wedding Dress” was readied for its walk down the aisle Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS. What could have been an exceptionally romantic movie is, instead, a maddening accumulation of cliches.

Whole sections of this movie seem to have been cut and pasted from “Cinderella,” from O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi” and from such romantic comedies as “The Truth About Cats & Dogs.” Even the central idea, as enchanting as it seems, is nothing new. It’s just a variation on such movies as “The Yellow Rolls-Royce” and “The Red Violin.”

Fortunately, the ensemble cast manages, now and again, to find some truth in the malarkey. Neil Patrick Harris is offhandedly charming as a photographer who can’t seem to focus on the obvious if offbeat charms of his assistant, played by Kathryne Dora Brown. And Brown’s real-life mom, Tyne Daly, lends her usual earthiness to her role as Brown’s character’s mother.

Uneven and inelegant, “The Wedding Dress”--written by Alexander Ignon and Emily Tracy from a story by Ignon and directed by Sam Pillsbury--nevertheless reduces certain of us viewers to tears. Perhaps it’s a Pavlovian response. We cried when we saw these stories before, so we think we should be crying again. Or maybe it’s that we keep showing up at weddings, and weddings always make us cry.