"27 Dresses" on DVD

See Katherine Heigl and James Marsden in 27 Dresses on DVD April 29. See reviews here.

27 Dresses: mostly for hopeless romantics
Expecting 27 Dresses to be realistic is like expecting a bridesmaid’s dress to be flattering or attractive. The movie is about Jane (Katherine Heigl), your average twenty-something with a job, an apartment, and an amazing ability to be in more weddings than most of us will attend in our lifetimes. She has been a bridesmaid in 27 weddings, including one underwater wedding and another sporting a Gone with the Wind theme. The only wedding she has yet to attend is her own. Despite being a perpetual bridesmaid, Jane holds out the dream that one day, she too will get married and all those women she stood up for will be there for her in return.

Jane is a passive, selfless, people-pleaser with a pathetic inability to say “no.” She is also secretly (or not so secretly) in love with her boss, George (Edward Burns), who just happens to be marrying her younger sister, Tess (Malin Akerman). The combination of her people-pleasing attitude and duty to obligation finds her planning the wedding of her sister and hating every minute of it. That is, until she meets Kevin (James Marsden), a journalist who writes the wedding announcements for the paper. At first glance the two seem a likely pair, but the movie pits the two against each other. He claims he doesn’t believe in love while she saves the weekly wedding announcements in the paper because of her obsession with love and weddings. They fight and argue, all the while feeling the sexual tension. The rest is clear.

The predictability is almost sad, yet still entertaining. The screen writer, Aline Brosh McKenna, who also wrote The Devil Wears Prada, infuses the conventional plot with witty and endearing scenes. The storyline works because the idea behind it is sincere, even if it is a bit much.

Heigl does a great job of being reserved and passive, a big departure from her role as the pushy Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy. Marsden, more known for playing the guy who doesn’t get the girl in movies like The Notebook and X-Men, pulls off the leading man role flawlessly. His look, scruffy and approachable, makes him all the more appealing. By the end, you want him to get the girl.

Other actors are cast in roles better suited elsewhere. Akerman, although believable as the self-centered little sister, Tess, plays too close a connected role to the outlandish, crudely mannered bride she played in The Heartbreak Kid. Sure, she has more class this time around, but her previous role being so similar may typecast her in future roles.

The other less-than-stellar performance is given by Judy Greer. Known for her roles as the comically annoying, odd-looking sidekick in Thirteen Going on Thirty and The Wedding Planner, Greer stumbles even further into awkward friend status with this movie. She plays Casey, Jane’s co-worker and sidekick. Her condescending attitude mixed with a hint of humor comes across as crass and irritatitating.

27 Dresses is not for everyone. The plot is based around the idea that Jane needs and wants a man to make her happy. Hopeless romantics will find this endearing and it may leave them longing for their prince charming, but for others, it may be too corny to truly enjoy. --Mandy Bruder

Unrealistic, overdone: 27 Dresses misses the mark
Do you know someone who has been a bridesmaid 27 times? Well neither do I, but this is the premise of the unrealistic chick flick, 27 Dresses, which is frustratingly similar to every other girl’s night movie starring Julia Roberts.

This film follows the classic formula: boy meets girl, boy deceives girl, girl forgives boy, boy marries girl. The pathetic Jane, a woman who has been in 27 weddings, is hopelessly in love with her boss, George. After her sister, Tess, comes to visit, George falls for her, leaving Jane devastated and forced to plan their upcoming wedding. Also included in the mix is Kevin, a wedding announcement writer, who deceives Jane by writing a story exposing her as the crazy bridesmaid, which is conveniently released just as Jane begins to fall for him.

Laced throughout the too perfectly planned drama and clichéd characters are all the common chick flick scenes including public love confessions on a stage and group singing in a bar à la My Best Friend’s Wedding. Admittedly, one scene in which Jane models all of her past bridesmaid dresses, which she keeps in her entrance hall closet, is amusing. But really, how many people get married underwater, on horseback and in the style of Gone with the Wind, and who simultaneously knows all these couples at once?

The story continues as Jane finally snaps and, in the most satisfying scene of the film, reveals her sister as the spoiled, selfish brat who has been misleading George to believe they actually have anything in common, when in reality she hates everything that he loves. Kevin continues to attempt winning Jane back, and I don’t think I need to say more for you to guess what happens.

The story drags slowly and between the few entertaining scenes, I found myself repeatedly checking my watch…brutal. While the story failed to keep me interested, I did enjoy the great shots of New York. The film successfully shows New York in an authentic way and made me wish I were walking down Broadway instead of watching these characters do so. The dialogue would certainly be believable if it was taking place in a different setting, but it is hard to imagine a bride being thrilled to have a stranger go on stage at her wedding and profess her love to someone. It is scenes like this that make this movie implausible, but also, I suppose, it is cheesy scenes like this that attract girls to see these films and make guys cringe at the idea of sitting through them.

If you are excited by the idea of a love story in which the occurrences are strangely similar to those in hundreds of other chick flicks, the characters parallel other film’s characters and manage to embarrass themselves in the most unlikely situations, and a quirky, unlikely woman finally finds love, then call up your girlfriends and make a night of it. However, for those who want a surprise and unique characters in a film, 27 Dresses falls drastically short, and sadly, all I can say for it is that it is decidedly blah. --Rachel Jacques