27 Dresses Review

Romantic comedies need good chemistry to be good and they need to follow that tried and tested formula of girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl likes then gets boy, girl loses boy, then wins boy back again….phew, what a formula! "27 Dresses" sticks to this formula and as you might expect the plot is filled with frills and romantic red herrings to keep you entertained and guessing. But enough cynicism here is the story.

Jane (Katherine Heigl) has devoted her adult life to being a bridesmaid; while other people have hobbies, Jane has weddings. She is the ultimate bridesmaid and has 27 dresses to prove it. She works for a magazine called Urban Everest and harbours a titanic sized crush on her boss, humanitarian, vegetarian and all round good-guy George (Ed Burns). When her glamorous model sister Tess (Malin Ackerman) breezes into town, she quickly comes to George's attention, causing Jane to feel an ever-growing heap of resentment.

While Jane throws herself into a bout of self-pity she comes to the attention of a cynical journalist (James Marsden) who writes the weddings page for a major newspaper. He thinks her always a bridesmaid life will make a great story. She thinks he's a creep.

It is hard to believe in this day in age that women in rom-coms no matter how successful are almost always obsessed with getting married or suffering from a bad case of unrequited love. Films for the modern woman such as "Knocked Up" which also starred Heigl and "There's Something About Mary" are few and far between.

"27 Dresses" may be formulaic and old fashioned but it does have good chemistry and well timed humour, both the slapstick and dry varieties. Like all good rom-coms it is sprinkled with universal truths like that old but good warm fuzzy, lets just accept people for who they are with all their faults.