PG-13 | 1h 51m | Comedy, Romance | 2008
Not having attended many weddings in my life (I can recall two when I was a child), I hadn’t known how much pressure some women feel to marry when they attend weddings, especially if they are afforded the lofty role of bridesmaid. Couple that pressure with declining marriage rates in the West, and you can understand why many women feel frustrated with the age-old institution, or at least their expectations of it. Changing attitudes about marriage (mainly on the part of men) have contributed to this decline.
This changing attitude of men manifests itself in one of the main characters in director Anne Fletcher’s 2008 chick-flick, “27 Dresses.” While not exactly sporting an innovative plot, it does shine some light on the marriage industry as a whole.
The film kicks off with the protagonist Jane as a young girl (Peyton List), who loves to help facilitate marriages with her sister Tess (Charli Barcena). Jane is the quintessential “people-pleaser,” who helps her family get through rough times after her mother passes away.
Years later, we catch up with Jane as a young adult (Katherine Heigl), and see that she’s decided her life’s calling is to help betrothed couples prepare for their weddings; in other words, she’s a perpetual bridesmaid and wedding planner. She also works as an executive assistant for her environmentally obsessed boss, George (Edward Burns), and has a secret crush on him. However, Jane’s best friend Casey (Judy Greer) is a woman who enjoys casual sex, and thinks Jane should too.
A hardworking woman with a busy day planner, Jane serves as a bridesmaid whenever she can. She has accumulated a grand total of 27 weddings and thus, has 27 leftover bridesmaid’s dresses stuffed into the closet of her New York apartment, which she frequently recycles for other wedding gigs. She is so obsessed with weddings that she cuts out newspaper clippings that have to do with the latest engagements and weddings and saves them.
In one mildly amusing scene, Jane hires a cab driver (Michael Paul) for the evening so that he can ferry her back and forth between two reception engagements since she scheduled both of them for the same time slot. She offers him a flat rate and vows to deduct $20 for each time he peeps at her through his rearview mirror (which is quite a few times) while changing dresses.
This is the first time that our aforementioned marriage cynic, Kevin (James Marsden), spots Jane—while she’s changing dresses in the back seat of the taxi. Her evening culminates in the proverbial toss of a new bride’s bouquet. Just as Jane lines up to catch it, a fellow attendee knocks her down in order to intercept the treasured item.
Jane wakes up from her unconscious state staring up into the face of Kevin, who helps her to her feet. He offers to escort her home in a cab since she’s still woozy. During the ride, once he learns of Jane’s perennial bridesmaid status, he taunts her by voicing some of his criticisms of marriage. Needless to say, Kevin’s comments sour her on him, and she quickly dashes out of the cab upon arriving at her apartment.
However, in her frenzied departure, Jane leaves behind her day planner, which Kevin peeks through to see where he can catch up with her in the future. Meanwhile, his boss at the newspaper he writes for demands that he write “colorful human interest stories,” coincidentally for the section that features weddings and engagements. So, he hatches a plan to use some of what Jane has written in her planner for a big article.
Jane’s flashy sister Tess (Malin Akerman) suddenly returns from a vacation and, from their interactions, it is evident that these two siblings are very different people. Their friction is further increased when Tess and George meet at a party and hit it off, just as Jane is about to announce her feelings for him.
A mere few weeks later, Tess and George announce their engagement as a fuming Jane tries her best to avoid Kevin, who has grown fond of her. This hodgepodge of interpersonal relations between these four characters plays out for the remainder of the film, and ends on a relatively upbeat (albeit predictable) note.
As with another film I recently reviewed, 2004’s mean-spirited “Mean Girls,” this modern romcom features a number of murky characters with questionable moral compasses. Similar to Lindsay Lohan’s character in that 2004 effort, Ms. Heigl plays a young woman who starts off as a relatively nice person, who is giving of herself purely to make others feel good. However, as the movie progresses, Jane becomes more and more selfish and annoying. Her sister Tess also lies about her lifestyle (pretending to be an environmentalist) in order to get engaged to George.
Another issue with this film is that the female leads chirp in squeaky versions of the Valley Girl accent, spoken so quickly that it’s sometimes hard to understand.
Although their characters aren’t terribly likable, all of the leads perform decently. Some mildly humorous situations elicit a chuckle or two. But there is quite a bit of profanity as well as tacky sexual content, so much so that this film could have easily been rated “R” instead of “PG-13.”
“27 Dresses” will probably appeal to hardcore rom-com fans who like “cute” movies with “cute” Hollywood-packaged storylines. It may also appeal to (mostly) women who just can’t get enough of movies having to do with weddings.
