27 Dresses

I’ve been on a movie-watching rampage recently. The past couple of weekends have been blessedly free of any social obligations, and there have been some good movies coming on TV recently, so watch this space for a bunch of movie reviews coming up.

Anyway, the first movie I watched a couple of weeks back was 27 Dresses. I didn’t intentionally watch this movie. I had programmed my recorder to record The Book Thief, but I got the timings all mixed up, and instead 27 Dresses got recorded. It seemed fun so we settled down to watch it anyway.

What’s the Movie About?

Jane (played by Katherine Heigl) is the quintessential always the bridesmaid, never the bride girl. She works as an assistant to her hot-shot boss (Edward Burns), who she is madly and secretly in love with. And she spends her free time acting as bridesmaid to all her friends, and planning their weddings.

When her beautiful but flaky younger sister (Malin Akerman) rolls into town, hells breaks loose when she and Burns fall madly in love with each other and decide to get married. And of course, Jane gets to be the bridesmaid.

Tragedy!

There is also James Marsden (our hero) in the movie who plays a journalist chronicling the weddings of the rich and famous of New York. He and Jane rub each other the wrong way, and things get worse when he writes a sarcastic piece on the upcoming nuptials.

Oh yeah! We know what comes next, don’t we? The rest of the story goes in typical rom-com style where the hero and the heroine learn to overcome their prejudices and fall in love with each other.

My Review

Heigl’s character is pretty much of a sad sack, and I just couldn’t understand the romance between two such drastically different characters as Heigl and Marsden. In fact, Heigl is boring, period. She is just not charismatic enough or funny enough to make us root for her character. I thought James Marsden was pitch perfect as the cynical reporter falling in love with a dreamy romantic, but in spite of his efforts the love story didn’t quite work for me.

The last straw was when Heigl realizes she is in love with Marsden at the end of the movie. Instead of going to his place or calling him (like how we regulars would go about it), she gate crashes a party and loudly proclaims her love for him from the stage. Beyond cringe-worthy. Seriously, does anyone do this in real life? If so, they should stop. Now.

I did like the secondary storyline a bit better. The humor of Jane’s sister falling in love with Jane’s boss, and watching Jane trying to control her impulses was fun. Edward Burns and Malin Akerman were just superb in their parts, I thought, and brought some much-needed life to the story.

Overall Thoughts

I’m keeping this review short, because this movie though fun, was quite lightweight, and as I write, I realize that I don’t actually have too much to say about it.

The story was nice, the actors decent, but there’s nothing too memorable about it. It badly needed that extra spark that a couple of lively dialogues, and a few truly romantic moments between the hero and the heroine would have added.

Strictly for watching at home when nothing else is around.