27 Dresses
27 Dresses is a very silly romantic comedy.
And even Katherine Heigl cannot really save it.
The premise could have produced something much sharper: a woman who has been a bridesmaid twenty-seven times, always organizing other people's happiness while her own romantic life remains completely stuck.
That is a decent starting point.
The problem is that the film does almost everything you expect from the first minute.
And exactly the way you expect it.
Jane is nice.
Too nice.
She helps everyone.
She never says no.
She loves the wrong man.
Another man appears who is obviously going to matter.
A sister complicates things.
There are secrets.
Misunderstandings.
Arguments.
Reconciliations.
And, of course, weddings.
Lots of weddings.
There is nothing wrong with using romantic-comedy conventions. Some great films do.
The problem is when there is almost nothing else.
The screenplay feels assembled from familiar pieces taken from other movies and placed exactly where they belong.
It never really tries to surprise us.
Katherine Heigl has enough charm and presence to make Jane more likable than the writing deserves.
But the character eventually becomes tiring.
Not because she is unpleasant.
Because she is written as excessively self-sacrificing, excessively understanding and almost incapable of standing up for herself.
For much of the movie, you simply want her to stop organizing everyone else's life and do something with her own.
It takes a long time.
James Marsden brings more energy, but his character is hardly original either. His relationship with Jane follows the genre's required steps almost perfectly.
They annoy each other.
Then they talk.
Then they understand each other.
And we know exactly where it is going.
That removes much of the comedy.
Predictability is not necessarily a problem if the journey is entertaining.
Here, the journey is not especially imaginative either.
The film tries to find humor in terrible dresses, weddings, embarrassing situations and Jane's sentimental chaos.
A few moments work.
Most do not.
The jokes feel calculated, and the story becomes increasingly sugary as it moves along.
There is also something rather dated in the way the film defines its heroine.
Jane's life seems almost entirely organized around finding the right man, getting married and finally having the wedding she has spent years arranging for everyone else.
That is the destination.
It would have been far more interesting to see Jane build a stronger identity of her own before reaching it.
Because her real problem is not that she is single.
It is that she has built her life around other people's needs.
There was a much better comedy hidden there.
But 27 Dresses prefers another familiar walk toward the altar.
Eventually, all that sweetness becomes heavy.
Heigl does what she can.
She has charisma.
She fits this kind of movie.
She even makes some scenes mildly enjoyable.
But an actress cannot create what the screenplay does not contain.
And this screenplay lacks surprise, personality and enough genuinely good comedy.
It is not terrible.
It is simply exactly what it looks like.
Light.
Predictable.
Superficial.
And very silly.
Easy to watch.
Even easier to forget.
And even Katherine Heigl cannot really save it.
The premise could have produced something much sharper: a woman who has been a bridesmaid twenty-seven times, always organizing other people's happiness while her own romantic life remains completely stuck.
That is a decent starting point.
The problem is that the film does almost everything you expect from the first minute.
And exactly the way you expect it.
Jane is nice.
Too nice.
She helps everyone.
She never says no.
She loves the wrong man.
Another man appears who is obviously going to matter.
A sister complicates things.
There are secrets.
Misunderstandings.
Arguments.
Reconciliations.
And, of course, weddings.
Lots of weddings.
There is nothing wrong with using romantic-comedy conventions. Some great films do.
The problem is when there is almost nothing else.
The screenplay feels assembled from familiar pieces taken from other movies and placed exactly where they belong.
It never really tries to surprise us.
Katherine Heigl has enough charm and presence to make Jane more likable than the writing deserves.
But the character eventually becomes tiring.
Not because she is unpleasant.
Because she is written as excessively self-sacrificing, excessively understanding and almost incapable of standing up for herself.
For much of the movie, you simply want her to stop organizing everyone else's life and do something with her own.
It takes a long time.
James Marsden brings more energy, but his character is hardly original either. His relationship with Jane follows the genre's required steps almost perfectly.
They annoy each other.
Then they talk.
Then they understand each other.
And we know exactly where it is going.
That removes much of the comedy.
Predictability is not necessarily a problem if the journey is entertaining.
Here, the journey is not especially imaginative either.
The film tries to find humor in terrible dresses, weddings, embarrassing situations and Jane's sentimental chaos.
A few moments work.
Most do not.
The jokes feel calculated, and the story becomes increasingly sugary as it moves along.
There is also something rather dated in the way the film defines its heroine.
Jane's life seems almost entirely organized around finding the right man, getting married and finally having the wedding she has spent years arranging for everyone else.
That is the destination.
It would have been far more interesting to see Jane build a stronger identity of her own before reaching it.
Because her real problem is not that she is single.
It is that she has built her life around other people's needs.
There was a much better comedy hidden there.
But 27 Dresses prefers another familiar walk toward the altar.
Eventually, all that sweetness becomes heavy.
Heigl does what she can.
She has charisma.
She fits this kind of movie.
She even makes some scenes mildly enjoyable.
But an actress cannot create what the screenplay does not contain.
And this screenplay lacks surprise, personality and enough genuinely good comedy.
It is not terrible.
It is simply exactly what it looks like.
Light.
Predictable.
Superficial.
And very silly.
Easy to watch.
Even easier to forget.
Mini Review: 27 Dresses is a very silly romantic comedy. And even Katherine Heigl cannot really save it. The premise could have produced something much sharper: a woman who has been a bridesmaid twenty-seven times, always organizing other people's happiness while her own romantic life remains completely stuck. That is a decent starting point. The problem is that the film does almost everything you expect from the first minute. And exactly the way you expect...
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