Bridesmaid Heigl Dressed For Stardom

Sun Herald

Sunday January 13, 2008

Rob Lowing

27 DRESSES

Rated: PG

Starring: Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Ed Burns, Judy Greer.

Critic's warning: Occasional language, adult themes.

Critic's rating: 7/10

IF YOU didn't know that Katherine Heigl was a bona fide movie star, then you'll know it after seeing 27 Dresses.

The plot might be nothing special and the pace almost stalls in the second quarter but none of this matters when Heigl is on screen.

Just as Julia Roberts did in Pretty Woman and Reese Witherspoon did in Legally Blonde, Heigl makes her character so real and personable that she transcends being a romantic comedy slapstick ditz.

She becomes a flesh-and-blood woman you totally believe in and want to cheer on, which makes for great romantic entertainment. That's also a relief for moviegoers desperate for a new screen heroine.

There have been few rewards for viewers sick of the rigidly non-spontaneous Hollywood-centric older generation (Nicole, Gwyneth, Julia, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston) and unimpressed by the mechanical goggling of the apprentices (Enchanted's Amy Adams; Stardust's Claire Danes).

And the only other feisty romantic movie contender, Keira Knightley, will, if she's smart, stick to classy English Pride & Prejudice and Atonement-like productions.

In Hollywood, that leaves Heigl. As even the filmmakers admitted, she triumphantly hijacked Knocked Up with a potent combination of sassiness, vulnerability and an approach which made all her scenes feel unforced and unpredictable.

Just as every action hero needs a non-bimbo romantic interest, so every comedy heroine needs a leading man who is not a putz, sap, Ken Doll or creep. James Marsden, fresh from hijacking his own movie (Enchanted) is a great choice here. The X-Men and Superman ensemble player deserves more "ordinary guy" leading roles. He works beautifully with Heigl; they're a couple you just love to see together on screen.

Right about now, you're probably wondering why the plotline has oh-so-obviously not been mentioned.

Yes, it is more than a little shop worn. Surely not coincidentally, 27 Dresses "borrows" chunks of Runaway Bride, Roberts's last teaming with her Pretty Woman co-star Richard Gere.

That had Roberts as the wedding-addicted gal who is shadowed for a hatchet-job story by journalist Gere.

In Dresses perennial bridesmaid Jane (Heigl) is investigated by ambitious New York columnist Kevin (Marsden). When he discovers that Jane has attended 27 weddings, he decides to make the woman who is always the bridesmaid, never the bride, the focus of a piece skewering the commercialism of the US wedding industry.

As stories go, it's pretty weak and not really helped by a subplot involving Jane's boss (Burns) and her competitive sister (Malin Akerman).

Luckily, The Devil Wears Prada writer Aline Brosh McKenna and director Anne Fletcher (who made the tidy dance drama Step Up) know this is mere padding and just a delaying tactic to make the Jane-Kevin encounters more poignant.

They regain points for brisk editing, for cleverly inserting effervescent pop songs from Elton John and Michael Jackson (pre-weirdness) and for including Judy Greer, from What Women Want, as a riotously snide co-worker.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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