28th Time’s the Charm

The heroine of the beyond predictable romantic comedy 27 Dresses is played by Katherine Heigl (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy), an actress Hollywood gladly has dubbed The Next Julia Roberts.

No disrespect to Heigl, but if neither Reese Witherspoon nor Jennifer Garner could usurp the title of America’s Sweetheart from Roberts, no one ever will.

No one.

Heigl plays idealistic, romantic Jane, the most selfless young woman anyone would want to call a sister, an employee, or a bridesmaid – 27 times over, natch.

A yes sort of gal, Jane always was good at taking care of everyone else, but she never took care of herself.

By the time 27 Dresses nears its end, all of this will have changed, though, double-natch.

Saddled with helping her younger sister Tess (Malin Akerman) plan her wedding to George (Edward Burns), the boss with whom she’s secretly in love, Jane begins to reexamine her “always-a-bridesmaid...” lifestyle.

Assisting her on this task is Kevin (James Marsden), a writer for the “Commitments”' column in the Sunday wedding section of the New York Journal she met cute-ish on a night she was pulling double bridesmaid duty.

One romantic comedy fashion montage later, in which we learn of the history of most of the dresses populating dedicated closet space in her New York City apartment, Jane realizes it’s time she put herself first…even though she’s had “some really good times in those dresses.”

Unfortunately, the change brings out some of the most cliché chick-flick trappings imaginable – the good girl goes bitchy! the bad girl just wants to be loved! the boy isn’t who he says he is! – and 27 Dresses soon feels like 24 too many.

I understand that weddings are something special that should be problem-free. But by making this movie so by-the-books, the filmmakers stumble on their slow way to the altar.

Casting Heigl, who’s high on the It List following the success of Knocked Up, was an inspired choice: she’s a likeable talent. But she’s not that memorable…no matter what the industry says. Think twice before you RSVP to this one.

My Rating **

Photo: 20th Century Fox.