'27 Dresses' should be thrown back in the closet

By Katie Powers

If you can get past all the sappy romantic comedy BS, "27 Dresses" seems like it could be a light, entertaining affair. But its entire essence is soured by stereotyping its lead character as a woman whose one goal in life is to get married. I thought we were past that.

"27 Dresses" is basically another bride movie like "The Wedding Planner" or "My Best Friend's Wedding." This one, though, feels more contrived and is less entertaining.

The bride wannabe is Jane, played by Katherine Heigl, who has been in love with weddings since she was a young girl. She has been in 27 different weddings (Imagine! How many best friends can you actually have?), all the while dreamily biding her time until she too can have a wedding -- or, in her words, the best day of her life.

Jane is madly but secretly in love with her boss George, an avid environmentalist outdoorsman, but hasn't managed to tell him.

Meanwhile, Jane's younger sister Tess, played by Malin Akerman, comes into town only to swoop George away from her sister. The worst part is that Tess is seducing George based on lies: She pretends to be a vegetarian and a hiker, when really she is only a hot wench.

Their courtship suddenly escalates when George proposes to Tess, and they plan their wedding just three weeks in advance. Now Jane feels obligated to plan her sister's wedding with the man of her dreams.

Enter Kevin, played by James Marsden, the witty, cynical New York reporter who covers weddings in the city. Kevin, talented and handsome, had met Jane once before, but now that he has been assigned to cover Tess and George's wedding, he gets a chance to do some hard-core investigating on this expert bridesmaid.

As the story develops, Kevin and Jane's conflicting attitudes toward love and marriage build to intrigue and attraction.

Meanwhile, though, Jane never once stands up to her sister who is destroying her life by stealing both her dream wedding and dream man.

What's worst about this movie is the basic concept: Are there still women out there right now whose one dream in life is to get married?

In one scene, Jane is registering gifts for her sister at a fancy store, pointing to a vase and saying, "This is the vase that she will put the flowers in that he brought home 'just because.' " Gag! She is so melodramatic about love, which may be acceptable in this genre, but the writers don't give her any other traits.

As the movie progresses, she turns more deeply inward and sad, which isn't very fun to watch.

Finally, when the time comes to cast her revenge upon the wicked witch of a sister, Jane's plot leaves her with more regret than fulfillment.

Marsden pulls through in the movie as likeable and intelligent, and the scenes between him and Heigl are fun to watch. But the other supporting characters are overdone -- maybe to make up for Jane's lack of comedic personality.

Casey, a typecast best friend played by Judy Greer, is Jane's best friend, and spends the majority of her screen time talking about how she is basically a drunk slut, which isn't very funny. Tess, the witch, has not even one likeable quality about her, leaving her character flat and painful.

But the main problem with this movie is that it perpetuates a lonely, desperate, spineless image of women.

An interesting turn would have been a gender reversal. Think of this: "Always, always a groomsmen, never a groom," with a snazzy female reporter that challenges some lovesick man for his spineless actions and blind vision of love.

Wouldn't that have been interesting?

Grade: C+

Contact Katie Powers at (408) 551-1918 or krpowers@scu.edu.