Film Bites

Jane Nichols(Heigl), realized her love of weddings at a young age. Helping others perfect the most important day of their lives is something she’s always enjoyed. She enjoys it so much, she’s helped plan 27 weddings. When she’s not organizing the next big day, she’s either working as George’s(Burns) assistant at Everest, an outdoors magazine, or reading through the commitments section of the paper. Every Sunday, Jane and countless other women flip directly to the commitments section to read the latest wedding proposals and tales of romantic courtship spun by Malcolm Doyle.

Her life seems perfect until Jane’s younger, more beautiful, more outgoing sister Tess(Akerman) returns home. On her first night home, Tess meet’s George, Jane’s boss. Immediately, Tess and George hit it off, at the distress of Jane, who is secretly in love with George. To Jane, Tess and George’s relationship is the stuff made of nightmares, but it only gets worse when George proposes and Jane is dragged into agreeing to plan the wedding. In spite of warnings from close friend Casey(Greer), and new acquaintance Kevin(Marsden), Jane must wrestle with her decision to plan Tess’ wedding to the man she loves.

A cute film, 27 Dresses doesn’t deliver any surprises. It follows the simple, timeless, format for a romantic comedy spun around a story about perpetually being a bridesmaid and never a bride. While it doesn’t deviate from the ‘romantic comedy’ shtick, that may be its downfall. Going into the theater, I had an idea of how the story would pan out simply from seeing the previews. My prediction coming true is a mixed blessing; good, in that I wasn’t disappointed at the ending, bad because in some sense, I wasn’t entertained.

The acting was acceptable; not Oscar worthy, but not disappointing. Jane was a good character for Heigl, allowing her to play the hot, playful, confident girl, as well as the shy, conflicted and sensitive girl. Marsden, judging by crowd reaction, was also well cast. The coordinated swooning from the women in the audience was proof enough that Marsden pulled off the cute, well-intentioned, but slightly stalkerish (in a good way) boy trying to win over the girl.

Sadly, Greer’s character Casey was almost sickening. The outlandishness of her sexuality was rather concerning. Being best friends with Jane, Casey was obviously invited to all the weddings she organized. Upsetting was the fact that Casey acted as a female ‘wedding crasher;’ only there to pick up groomsmen and act as the opposing sexual force to Jane’s demure wholesomeness.

In the end, 27 Dresses can by counted on to deliver as a romantic comedy. It should be safe to say it may end up on the top of some favorites lists, nestled between How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Wedding Planner.