At their worst, romantic comedies display an utter contempt for their target demographic, assuming that any woman seeking out a rom-com isn’t particularly interested in genuine wit or insight — it’s essentially porn for the girly set. (A similar argument can be made for the action genre, mind you, with the genders switched.) 27 Dresses, while still following the conventions of genre, nonetheless never feels like it’s pandering or condescending to its audience.
Katherine Heigl plays Jane, a woman obsessed with the idea of marriage despite living out the cliché of “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” — she’s got all 27 bridesmaid dresses to prove it. She is, of course, secretly in love with her boss, the cool-but-bland George (Edward Burns), but when her superficial younger sister Tess (Malin Akerman) arrives and cluelessly snaps him up in a whirlwind romance, Jane is inevitably called upon to plan their wedding.
Meanwhile, James Marsden is Kevin, a cynical journalist stuck writing for the sappy “Commitments” column in the New York Journal, and he sees writing a biting piece on Jane (the archetypal “lonely bridesmaid”) as being his ticket to gaining legitimacy. Ostensibly following Tess and George’s wedding, Kevin gradually gains Jane’s trust despite them both being philosophically at odds when it comes to the ethics of the so-called “wedding industry”.
Many critics have complained that 27 Dresses doesn’t go far enough in savaging the fleeting yet excessive conspicuous consumption of modern weddings, but at what point, then, would the film still function as a romantic comedy? The purpose here is not to create a pointed critique of flashy but ultimately empty wedding ceremonies — that task is for a different movie — but instead to give its audience a charming and witty (but still conventional) example of the genre while still making several very valid observations through the mouthpiece of Kevin. That Heigl’s character balances this with a degree of romantic idealism is not a bug — it’s a feature. (The fact that the film has been marketed as being “From the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada” does create certain expectations, however.)
While Burns isn’t particularly charismatic despite being set up as an object of unrequited desire, Heigl and Marsden carry the film along with real chemistry; Heigl’s knack for comedy in particular keeps things fun and light but not frivolous. A scene involving Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets”, while, again, seeming to come straight from the rom-com playbook, still feels fresh and energetic because the leads are just so fun to watch.
Ultimately, 27 Dresses is a standard (but well-made) romantic comedy elevated by engaging leads and smart dialogue. If you’re looking for a romantic comedy to see, you could do much worse than this — after all, you could be watching P.S. I Love You instead.
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