The title refers to the improbable number of bridesmaid uniforms the lead character possesses and keeps in her closet. This typifies the saccharine overkill romantic comedies seem to have carved indelibly into their formula. However foreign this approach may seem to many a moviegoer, it is reasonably justified nonetheless. For every insensitive soul cringing at the sight of a newly formed couple riding into the sunset, there is a quartet of happy romcom aficionados for whom cliche means reassurance rather than tedium: attraction of opposites, unrequited love, fixation on the frothy ceremonial – it’s all here. 27 Dresses demonstrates what happens when all aspects of the romantic comedy formula are diligently, if unimaginatively, adhered to: one gets 100 minutes’ worth of forgettable pleasure for the good one within you.
The movie is no better and no worse than the general genre output and its only lasting virtue comes in the form of a passed leading-lady test for Katherine Heigl. With her beautiful features and innate sense of comic timing the Grey’s Anatomy star indicates that she could challenge for the mantle of, say, Reese Witherspoon, if not yet Julia Roberts. 27 Dresses also makes it unequivocally clear that to do so Heigl should be gracing better and more original fare. In this movie a drunken rendition of Elton John’s song Benny and the Jets caps the final scene between Heigl and love interest James Marsden. This scene pays homage to the song I Say a Little Prayer from the decade-old movie favourite My Best Friend’s Wedding. Ironically, this is the kind of quality movie Heigl should be striving towards.
Heigl plays Jane Nichols, a chronically selfless person equipped with all the qualities one expects from a best friend and a trusted employee. Jane’s best friends invariably ask her to be the heart and soul of their life-defining romantic ritual – Jane is always at hand, be it as a stand-in at a gown-fitting or as an all-action part-time wedding planner. She is also the invaluable assistant to advertising mogul George (Edward Burns) who, alas, never notices her desperate crush on him. George, however, is summarily smitten by Jane’s self-centered fun-loving sister Tess (Malin Akerman) to the point of proposing marriage. It is easy to guess whom Tess will ask to be her bridesmaid. Enter Kevin (Marsden), a popular reporter writing the Sunday weddings column for the New York Times, who thinks Jane’s career as a serial bridesmaid would make for a nice story. His cheerful cynicism (he does not tell Jane he will write about her) is the instinctive opposite of everything Jane stands for, which, of course, means that they will eventually end up in each other’s arms.
This is no spoiler for anyone who has seen more than two romantic comedies; writer Aline Brosh McKenna (who adapted The Devil Wears Prada for the big screen) tones down the originality in favour of scenes where Heigl could prove her mettle as a leading lady. She does so quite comfortably, but the drawback of this approach is that the remainder of the cast shine only through Heigl’s reflected light rather than in their own right: Marsden is playing second fiddle, he knows it and does not try to steal any scenes; Burns, Akerman and Judy Greer (as Jane’s inspired deadpan best friend) wait in the wings until called upon to deliver a line or two. This does not make the film bad, just, well, disappointingly predictable. But then again, romantic comedy fans like it that way.
