Review of 27 Dresses (2008) by Nicole N — 27 Aug 2010

"Step Up" director Anne Fletcher's romantic comedy "27 Dresses" is so giddy, witty, and incisively funny that you can almost overlook the formulaic Hollywood plot underlying everything. This lightweight, frothy farce is consistently entertaining, and "The Devil Wears Prada" scenarist Aline Brosh McKenna relies on the abundant and judicious use of irony to deliver drama an edge. Nobody wants to be who they are in "27 Dresses," and the title holds the secret of our heroine's predicament. All the usual characters flesh out the action. The heroine lives for her wedding day and never leaves a bride in the lurch, even if it means putting her own life on hold. She has the slender, cynical best friend who has to smack her around to bring her back to reality. Pretty much Jane lives in a fantasy. She has set her sights on the perfect husband and he happens to be her boss. Jane's cute, sexy, irresponsible little sister Tess is a walking, talking demolition wrecking ball for Jane's aspirations. Jane's hunk of a boss George suffers from short-sightedness. She falls down all over herself to take care of him and he doesn't realize that she is in love with him. The hero is a cynical, hates marriage reporter stuck in the dead end job of writing about--of all things--weddings! The way that Fletcher and McKenna play musical chairs with these characters is what makes "27 Dresses" so devastatingly entertaining. Katherine Heigl and James Marsden are agreeably cast and exude chemistry as well as charisma. Judy Greer delivers the juiciest bits of dialogue and Malin Akerman is the blonde that knocks Edward Burns on his butt. This is the kind of upbeat, joyous nonsense that you can watch hundreds of times over just to savor the best scenes.

She is a bridesmaid who yearns to be a bride, and he is the wedding reporter at the newspaper where he begs to write exposes. They meet at a wedding when the heroine is slam-dunked by other women during the traditional bouquet tosses. Jane (Katherine Heigl of "The Ugly Truth") lies stunned on the floor. When she opens her eyes, Kevin (James Marsden of "X-Men"), is crouched over her. He sends two other women packing and helps an unstable Jane off the floor. When Jane tries out her feet on her own volition, she staggers and Kevin takes her home in the cab that she had rented for the entire evening. Jane has been to two wedding. The weddings occur on opposite sections of town and she changes dresses in the cab. She promises the cabbie $300 hundred if he won't look. Nevertheless, by the time that the hectic evening is over for Jane, she pays the cabbie a mere $140 and bides Kevin good night. What poor Jane doesn't realize is that she has forgotten her Filofax and left it in the floor in the backseat of the cab. Kevin appropriates it and pitches its contents to her editor as the basis for scintillating journalism.