Bridal high-jinks in the U.K.

Instead of working to clarify its high-concept contrivances, the romantic comedy “The Decoy Bride” jettisons logic and detail for silly-quirky rompiness. The result is a forced film of only fleeting charm when kooky captivation à la “Waking Ned Devine” should have been the order of the day.

Set on the fictional Outer Hebrides island of Hegg (but shot in and around Scotland and on the Isle of Man), this slim fairy tale involves Katie (Kelly Macdonald), a love-challenged local enlisted by a visiting Hollywood agent (Michael Urie) to pose as a “decoy bride” to throw off an aggressive paparazzo (Federico Castelluccio) hellbent on documenting the secret wedding of world-famous actress Lara Tyler (Alice Eve) and her author-fiancé, James (David Tennant).

While Lara hides out on tiny Hegg, self-dubbed “man vegan” Katie and the hapless James pretend to tie the knot — fooling few, especially the photographer, who shows up anyway — and soon forge a typically testy love connection.

If you’ve seen most any rom-com you know where this one’s headed. Unfortunately, under director Sheree Folkson’s unsteady hand, getting there is more frustrating than fun. The cast, however, also including Maureen Beattie as Katie’s carpe diem, wheelchairbound mother, and Sally Phillips (who co-scripted with Neil Jaworski) as the agent’s assistant, is uniformly game. “The Decoy Bride.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes. At Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, Santa Monica.