Newspaper reporter Kevin (James Marsden) offers a helping hand to fallen bridesmaid Jane (Katherine Heigl), clad in one of her ''27 Dresses.'' (Courtesy photo)

By Bob Polunsky
Movie Critic

“27 Dresses” plays like a re-run of every “I’m Getting Married” movie ever made. You can almost see the characters roll their eyes when they recite dialogue. 

Most of the problem is the predictable script, but more inventive direction would even have overcome that obstacle. 

The plot idea is very workable for a comedy, and Katherine Heigl makes a likable and beautiful heroine. She plays Jane, a frustrated young woman itching to be a bride. She’s already been a bridesmaid in 27 different weddings, hence the film’s title.

Flashbacks of her and those weddings reveal her passionate determination to wear a wedding dress instead, and the fast-moving montage sets a promising tone.

What’s more, Jane has already picked out her groom-to-be. He is none other than her boss, George (Edward Burns), but he doesn’t know it so he isn’t very cooperative.

In fact, he gets romantically involved with Jane’s sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), instead, and Jane has to accept the idea of being a bridesmaid again instead of a bride.

Since Jane is the main character in a romantic comedy, we expect her to find another man quickly so she will be the center of attention in her own movie. That’s the usual formula for romantic comedies, and moviegoers would be disappointed with anything else.

We’re also happy that she didn’t marry George. Even Jane realizes that his only qualification for marriage to her was his availability. Romance hadn’t blossomed yet, and what’s a romantic comedy without romance? 

On the plus side, there is another man in Jane’s life. He is a journalist named Kevin (James Marsden), and he always seems to be hanging around so he gets on her nerves. Fans of romantic comedies will know that his consistent availability is a plot ploy. It suggests that he is destined to be “Mr. Right” in her love life. It always does in romantic comedies so the audience expects it.

Jane doesn’t take Kevin seriously until she finds out he writes a newspaper column that she reads all the time.  When she learns that he wrote them, she realizes that he and she have something in common after all.

The film is stacked with stereotypical characters and predictable resolutions to keep Jane’s eagerness to be a bride a motivating factor. Tess is not really her antagonist. She is just the character that steers her away from George and to a more positive pathway to romance and a chance to finally wear a wedding dress. 

The movie follows the usual Hollywood boy-meets-girl formula but lacks vitality. Aline McKenna, screenplay writer of  “The Devil Wears Prada,” wrote the script for “27 Dresses” but didn’t inject the same sparkling wit and bubbly characters as she did for that Meryl Streep outing.

As a result, it doesn’t work the same magic, and the dialogue sounds routine. Heigl and Marsden talk the talk of a destined-to-be married couple but don’t sound as if they mean it. There isn’t enough chemistry between them, and chemistry between leading players is a basic ingredient of romantic movies. It not only helps the audience root for the characters, but also helps the audience identify with the emotions of the characters. That’s what happens when likable lovers communicate with appreciative smiles to let us know they are in love.

“27 Dresses” relies on happenstance and occasional interruptions by lesser characters instead to instill a feeling of camaraderie. A likable sing-along sequence to Elton John’s music does it for one scene, but it doesn’t help develop the lead characters. They still come off as stereotypes reciting stereotypical dialogue and leaving sparkling lines of dialogue to the film’s minor characters. Judy Greer plays the talkative minor character of Casey well enough to overshadow leading lady Katherine Heigl.

The opening montage of Jane in the 27 different dresses she wore as a bridesmaid at 27 different weddings suggests that a climactic point in the plot will resolve Jane’s romantic dilemma so we can be happy for her.

This only makes sense in Hollywood’s view: Romantic comedies have predictable resolutions. Romantic-minded moviegoers like them. When the romance and comedy are part of the picture, a movie is more likely to involve the audience emotionally enough to care what happens to the characters.  This one doesn’t.  

Studio rating: PG-13
Bob says: “Not as good as it could have been”
2 Stars