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Something Borrowed, Something New
By bukkhead | January 28, 2008
FILM REVIEW: ’27 DRESSES’
Written by Aline Brosh McKenna
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Rated PG-13
107 mins.
They’re called chick flicks, and that’s supposed to be disparaging. Or sometimes they’re called formulaic, movies where you know exactly everything that’s going to happen. But movies of this nature shouldn’t be judged on their predictability. Rather, they should be considered on their execution of the formula. Sometimes, you want to see a movie that doesn’t hold any surprises, that doesn’t ask you to make some fantastical acceptance of impossible logic just so that the whole thing “works.” Actually, the irony is that these formulaic movies do portray a fantasy world, one where everything works out in the end, which is sometimes just where you want to be for an hour and a half.
This is a tradition that goes back to almost the very beginning of film, and if you like, goes back even into the great literary explosion of the Victorian era. People love a good love story. Whether it’s Jane Austen’s Emma or Katherine Hepburn’s Alice , we want to see beautiful, but strong women pursued by tough, but gentle men. In this way, Katherine Heigl is poised to be the next Audrey Hepburn. From “Gray’s Anatomy” and the much acclaimed Knocked Up, Heigl hasn’t exactly burst onto the scene, but she is certainly establishing a confident presence.
Heigl is Jane, the archetypal “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” We see her first doing what she does best, attending to the needs of not just one, but two brides at two different weddings on the same night. And as each new character is introduced, we have no trouble whatsoever fitting them into the plotline and satisfying our expectations. Her best friend Casey, the one with the questionable moral compass. Her boss George, the object of her crush, utterly unaware of her charms. Her sister Tess, the vapid bombshell who falls for and is swept up by George. And of course Kevin, the good looking cynic with whom she fights through most of the movie.
These plots construct themselves, which leaves writers and directors left only to come up with clever dialogue and to keep the energy right. Writer Aline Brosh McKenna and choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher do a fine job of keeping the film on pace, taking no risks but making sure everything happens as it should. McKenna also wrote The Devil Wears Prada, and Fletcher was a producer for The Wedding Planner, so their pedigree are evident in the job they’ve done.
And as for the actors, their job is to make us fall in love with them. Everyone is beautiful—most of all Heigl, of course. In as much as the bride always dresses her bridesmaids in hideous outfits, if only so she will look beautiful next to them, the dresses can’t be too awful, or the wedding is ruined. Heigl doesn’t exactly outshine the rest of the cast, but she is the prettiest of them all, and we can look forward to seeing her in more film likes this for a while to come.
(An edited version of this review was printed in the Newport Mercury.)
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