27 Dresses
by Catherine Lee

Jane, the heroine of 27 Dresses, is more like Giselle, the heroine of Enchanted, than any real woman should be. Of course, no woman in a movie is real. Like Giselle, Jane seems completely out of place in Manhattan. Unlike Giselle, Jane’s “backstory” doesn’t include starting life as a cartoon princess who knows only fairy tale storylines and winds up in Manhattan because an evil queen uses magic to drop her through a hole in the universe. But all movie romances are essentially fairy tales. In fairy tales, likability is more important than believability, and 27 Dresses has many likeable qualities.

Jane is presented as a kind of Cinderella, cleaning up the pre-matrimonial messes of girlfriends as she dreams of her Prince Charming. Yes, Jane has 27 dresses worn as a bridesmaid for 27 of her friends. She’s so accomplished at this task that when we meet her she’s shuttling between two weddings on the same night, maid of honor at both. 

She seems to be genuinely enjoying this grueling routine, and the opening sequence is funny – watching the two very different wedding parties dancing to the same goofy retro beat with Jane changing dresses in a cab between parties. 

Speaking of retro, Jane loses her Filofax in all the flurry of activity. It is picked up like Cinderella’s lost glass slipper by a gentleman named Kevin. In most movies, but especially a movie like 27 Dresses, that’s the ball game. The guy who sends you flowers and returns your Filofax – he’s the guy. 

Of course there will be complications. In 27 Dresses the complications spill out like this: Jane has a huge crush on her handsome, successful boss; Jane’s younger sister comes to town; and in no time Sis and the boss are in love and engaged. 

Jane gets stuck planning another wedding for her sister and the man she loves. She’s too shy and classy (or maybe clueless) to declare her feelings to her boss, let alone to tell her sister to back off or notice how cute Filofax Kevin is. 

Criticizing 27 Dresses for being formulaic would be easy and a waste of time. Yes, Jane is too good to be true. Yes, the people around her take advantage of her. But 27 Dresses has its pleasures. 

Chief among them is Catherine Heigl as Jane. As she did in Knocked Up, she is able to make her character’s optimism and good intentions believable. After 27 weddings, you would think she’d developed a touch of cynicism. 

Somehow Heigl makes Jane – a woman who spends more time reading the wedding notices in the paper than she does looking for a husband – very likeable. Heigl is on her way to becoming an accomplished comedienne, which must be more fun than the soap opera storylines she’s given on “Grey’s Anatomy.” You do wish the filmmakers would give her a bit more to do. It might be funny for a woman so hoping for her own wedding to spend a little more time looking for a guy. 

Her best friend thinks she should. Judy Greer plays Casey, the funny, sharp-tongued buddy who thinks Jane should stop mooning over George the boss, played with sturdy attractiveness by Ed Burns. Casey notices Kevin right away, like a real woman would. 

The very handsome and plenty sexy James Marsden plays Kevin, and he and Heigl have chemistry. Kevin, who was dumped by his wife after a very expensive wedding, is every bit the cynic. He and Jane are opposites, and you know what they say about opposites. 

27 Dresses is written by Aline Brosh McKenna, who adapted The Devil Wears Prada. She and director Anne Fletcher make maximum use of the conceit of the title. The montage sequence of Jane parading in her 27 dresses, all of which she has saved, for the admiring Kevin is truly funny – at least for the ladies in the audience. Usually the guys get a pass. What man doesn’t look as good as he can in a nice tux? Although some of the weddings that have spawned these dresses are so over the top even the groomsmen are stuck in some awful get-up. 

An unabashed chick flick, 27 Dresses makes plenty of good wedding jokes. Is there any woman who hasn’t offered a silent prayer (“Please, may the dress not be horrible”) when agreeing to be in a wedding. 27 Dresses is a demonstration of how futile this prayer is. Brides to be out there, take heed. Be kind to your girlfriends. 

Kevin is on the far end of the scale of wedding cynicism, but his own failed marriage is only part of what makes him more than a little twitchy about weddings. Under another name he writes the wedding column that Jane reads religiously. He wants out of this journalistic ghetto, but his way out puts him on a collision course with Jane. 

He and Jane do have collision in a car – just before the other collision happens. This leaves them soaking wet, annoyed and in a bar. After a few drinks they are treating the bar patrons to a slurred performance of “Benny and the Jets.” 

Eventually, of course, Jane sorts it all out with the boss and the sister. The sister takes a little more work. Jane and Tess lost their mother at a young age. Jane has taken care of Tess always, which helps explain why Jane puts up with so much selfishness. Tess (Malin Akerman) rather miraculously sheds her bad self to encourage Jane to take better care of herself and stop worrying so much about others. 

It takes more encouragement, including kissing the prince who turns out to be more of a frog. A movie about weddings and dresses rather inevitably ends with a wedding, a tasteful affair, with a funny twist. Jane learned a few things on the way to her own wedding, most importantly picking the right guy. 

It is Oscar season, and we moviegoers should be out seeing all the nominated films we can squeeze in. But even the most devoted movie lover gets sick of blood, violence, betrayal, war, greed and mayhem, and that is most of the menu for the Oscar nominees. If you’re feeling in need of palate cleansing entertainment, 27 Dresses is a nice fit, despite silly bows, mistaken ribbons and awkward accessories.

Copyright 2007 Ad Media Inc.