You know what I hate? Bandwagons. Nothing’s worse than having a bunch of people pile on to a trend or an individual just because they are the flavour of the moment, especially when you beat many of them there to begin with. For me there was once a show called Roswell and one of its stars was a young actress called Katherine Heigl, who was easily one of the best parts of what was a solid, sci-fi, teen drama. Of course, she later ended up on a little program called Grey’s Anatomy and everyone then knew who she was and then she got Knocked Up last summer.
And if the plausibility of someone who looks like Katherine Heigl allowing herself to become impregnated with the spawn of someone who looks like Seth Rogen strained credibility, then 27 Dresses will similarly bake your noodle. How can a woman like Katherine Heigl take second place and be the frumpy, perpetually alone older sister when she clearly outshines and outclasses every other female in the film? 27 Dresses does its best to sell that notion and often succeeds, making it a perfectly acceptable romantic comedy.
Heigl is Jane (first name “Plain” apparently) and Jane really likes helping people get married. With a closet full of bridesmaid dresses, Jane regularly clips her favourite commitment articles from the New York Journal written by the utterly romantic Malcolm Dixon. Speaking of romantic, those are the exact thoughts Jane has for her boss George (Ed Burns), despite warnings about mixing business and pleasure from her best friend Casey (Judy Greer). But Jane’s perfect bubble is burst when she finds out her sarcastic suitor is Dixon (James Marsden) and when her little sister Tess (Malin Akerman) catches George’s eye.
You know, no one gets better than me about how formulaic this is; the vast majority of romantic comedies are all cut from the same cloth anyway. And honestly, I’m not sure how these comedies could depart radically from the ordinary unless you don’t discount everybody’s favourite: the killing spree ending. But frankly having Jane come into her sister’s wedding with a machine gun and wasting the bridal party would probably fly in the face of the producers’ desire to create a crowd-pleasing romantic film.
The main problem with the movie is that no one’s going to believe that a smart, successful man like George is going let his eyes gloss over Jane for her oh so, obviously shallow younger sister. Akerman played Ben Stiller’s object of deflection in last year’s remake of The Heartbreak Kid, and in that movie she didn’t have any favours done for her by the Farrelly Brothers; the character she played was utterly detestable. In 27 Dresses it’s not a question of annoyance, it’s a question of, “Really? That’s the sister you go with?” According to IMDB, the costume designer had difficulty finding dresses that Heigl looked bad in. Tell me about it.
