27 Dresses

I really liked Katherine Heigl's newest flick. As the people behind me at the theater reminded me, "she was in that pregnant movie" last summer. She even came out in Vanity Fair and said the character she played in Knocked Up was a bit shrill and a little anti-feminist. The character she plays in 27 Dresses is not shrill, but rather a pushover. She's an assistant to a magazine/clothing company boss and has taken that assisting thing to every element of her life. Because she's at an age when everyone around her is getting married (I can relate), she's the wedding assistant to all her friends and seems to enjoy doing it. She doesn't hate the bridezillas she's friends with, she's just their friend on their big day. The movie starts with her running back and forth between two weddings on the same night, changing dresses in the cab. It's funny and cute, and more importantly she meets James Marsden, a "commitments" writer for a NY paper, who is covering one of the weddings. Marsden is cute and unlike the cliche in other romantic comedies, actually seems to like her as a person, more than how he can exploit her to get out of the "commitments" gig. However, she is in love with her boss, a very sweet and un-smarmy Edward Burns. Burns of course falls for Heigl's sister and Heigl ends up planning her dream wedding for her sister, who is a self-absorbed twit that I would have pushed down the stairs as a child. Heigl eventually learns to stand up for herself after sabotaging her sister's rehearsal dinner. There's a wonderfully cute scene with Heigl and Marsden getting drunk and singing "Benny and the Jets" with all the wrong words. Overall, very cute movie, high entertainment value, and if you're of the right age, you'll recognize the insanity that is the wedding circuit these days. 4 of 5 stars.