The convention, in movies about a guy who suddenly realizes he actually loves the woman who is his best friend just as she is about to be married and he sets out to stop her wedding, is that the groom-to-be must be a jerk.

Or at least an affable oaf, like Ralph Bellamy.

But "Made of Honor" gets it wrong. In this romantic comedy, the groom-to-be is a great guy. Which means the man trying to break them up -- our hero -- is kind of a jackass.

So the audience is left with a conundrum. Does it want the bride-to-be to end up with Mr. Perfect or with the creep, just because he is cute and played by Patrick Dempsey and has unsuspected talent as a juggler?

It is a common rule among the makers of romantic comedies that conundrums, in general, are to be avoided.

Dempsey stars as Tom, who made a fortune by inventing the coffee collar. His best friend since college is Hannah, who is bright and beautiful and great fun and has apparently been pining for Tom since the day they met.

But he's apparently not too bright, despite that whole coffee collar thing, and spends his nights successfully pursuing every non-Hannah woman in town.

"I can sleep with whoever I want, and I still get to hang out with Hannah afterward," he tells his unhelpful friends. But at least they don't point out that it should be "whomever."

Hannah, played by Michelle Monaghan, goes to Scotland on business. Just as Tom realizes she is the right woman for him -- or for anyone, frankly -- she falls in love with a Scotsman who is sexy, handsome, wealthy, strong, kind, loving, considerate, brave, clean and reverent.

On the advice of his unhelpful friends, Tom decides to try to break them up, thus potentially ruining the happiness of his best friend.

The basic idea of this genre holds enormous appeal and dates back to such films as "His Girl Friday," "The Philadelphia Story" and even a few that didn't star Cary Grant.

So "Made of Honor" has its moments, especially its romantic moments. You might not laugh, but at least one bit of physical humor involving a waiter is particularly well done.

The film is not bad and, despite a lot of filler, sometimes even decent -- until we get to the climax. Without going into detail, the ill-conceived climax involves Patrick Dempsey and a horse. Filmmakers should never, ever put Patrick Dempsey on top of a horse. Ever.

The misleading and frankly awful title comes from the fact that Hannah asks Tom to be her maid of honor, although it doesn't actually add anything to the plot. All the characters titter at the thought, and some make the all-too-predictable comments questioning his sexual orientation.

Apparently, the filmmakers think it is completely novel for a man to be an attendant to a bride or a woman to be a groom's best man. In my own personal experience, that's been around for more than a dozen years.