Always a bridesmaid...

27 Dresses
DVD


As I’ve mentioned, I have always been a sucker for romantic comedy. Possibly this means that I am somehow completely incapable of taking love and marriage seriously, and am therefore psychologically damaged, but whatever. There it is. I prefer slapstick lovers to star crossed lovers any day of the week. So when Judie-the-Webmistress-Librarian recommended 27 Dresses, I snapped it up for weekend viewing.
The premise is this: our heroine Jane (played by Katherine Heigl) discovered at a very young age that she had a great talent for helping out brides. Brides-to-be, brides on their special day, Bridezilla – you name her, Jane could manage her, and make the whole event go off like clockwork. Thus Jane is in great demand as a bridesmaid, and in the course of following her calling has accumulated a collection of bridesmaid dresses. (Or as my friend Mary calls her own, much smaller collection, “a closetful of ugly frocks.”) Jane is a true romantic, who has only remained unwed because she is secretly in love with her boss George (Edward Burns – such a cutie!) who is unaware of her crush and thinks of her as his gal Friday and nothing more. Anyway, one night Jane is in two weddings, and must keep performing a quick change in the back seat of a taxi. She is spotted by the handsome Kevin, who writes the New York Journal Commitments column, but really wants to move into feature article territory. By the end of the evening, he not only manages to meet Jane and chat her up, he also manages to get a look at her Filofax, and discovers that she is practically a professional bridesmaid. Kevin thinks Jane’s story may be the one that will get him out of Commitments, so he pursues her without revealing his ulterior motive. Meanwhile, Jane’s younger sister Tess shows up for a visit. Tess, a veritable man-magnet, is introduced to George, who of course falls for her. And so it goes, in a comedy of errors that ranges from hilarious to poignant and back again.
This is a fun movie with a good cast. I had never seen Katherine Heigl in anything before but found her to be a very likeable lead. If you are looking for a pleasant escape from holiday madness, check out 27 Dresses. If nothing else, it will make you grateful -- grateful that you never had to don one of Jane’s ugly frocks....