Starring Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, and Kevin McKidd. Rated PG. Opens Friday, May 2, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

Made of Honour is a romantic comedy that works a little too hard to push all the right date-movie buttons. It stars veteran actor Patrick Dempsey as Tom, a carefree bachelor who suddenly realizes that he’s deeply in love with his best friend, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). When Hannah gets engaged to a wealthy Scottish duke (Kevin McKidd), Tom tries to win over Hannah by accepting her unconventional offer to serve as the bridal party’s maid of honour.

Sound familiar? That’s because it’s basically a gender switch on My Best Friend’s Wedding with a few leftover kilts thrown in from Four Weddings and a Funeral. It’s only fitting that Tom plays the well-off inventor of the cardboard cup holder that keeps your hand from getting burned by your takeout latte; Made of Honour is the cinematic equivalent of a designer coffee. Journeyman director Paul Weiland (City Slickers II) has merely robotically mixed a series of dashes and squirts from other films that have earned big bucks using the same formula.

Thanks to a pleasant cast, the proceedings aren’t sluggish. But Dempsey has lost a lot of zip since making his big-screen mark as the likable kid in 1988’s Some Girls. He’s too much of a pro to let things sag beyond repair, but he looks tired here, as if he’s squeezing this project in between his bread-and-butter work on the small screen. Maybe what this movie really needs is a shot of early Hugh Grant.