Movies - Monday, August 31

The Age

Thursday August 27, 2009

CRAIG MATHIESON

27 Dresses (2007)Showtime, 4.40pmJUST four years ago, Katherine Heigl was starring in Romy and Michelle: In the Beginning (for the record, she was shadowing Mira Sorvino's Romy) but thanks to her role in the ever-loopy medical melodrama Grey's Anatomy and a turn in Knocked Up, she now finds herself poised to assume the poisoned chalice that is Julia Roberts' crown as the queen of the romantic comedy. At the age of 30, Heigl is a blonde, physically imposing figure who nonetheless, like Roberts and Reese Witherspoon, doesn't exude a sexual energy. Her first film after Knocked Up, 27 Dresses, written by Aline Brosh McKenna and directed by Anne Fletcher, positioned Heigl as the put-upon runner-up in love who had been a bridesmaid 27 times. Weddings as an idealised summit are a romantic comedy staple and here it's a comically unobtainable goal that has morphed Heigl's Jane: she's in love with her boss (Ed Burns) but won't reveal her feelings, even when her younger sister (Malin Akerman) moves in on him. The catalyst is James Marsden as a cynical reporter forced to cover weddings €” his deft, likeable performance has a hint of the early James Stewart to it.Waiter (2006)SBS One, 11.50pmSIMILAR to Marc Forster's better-known Stranger than Fiction, a Dutch waiter discovers his life is being scripted and demands some rewrites to spice it up.CRAIG MATHIESON

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