Movie Review: 27 Dresses

May10,2010 byRobin | 5 Comments

27Dresses is, as much as it is a movie, a daring run for a World Record for number of

clich ideas about chicks and marriage shoved, clown-car style, into one two hour
RomCom. Whereas BrideWars settles for the general theme of women secretly hate
each other, and every other movie settles for the idea of, people rush into
marriage, but true love conquers all, 27Dresses really has so many things to say
about ladies and their emotionally-fraught relationship with weddings.
Like, did you know that an older sister will feel distressed if her younger, more
beautiful sister weds before her? It is so. Did you know that some women have a
hard time saying no and readily put others needs before their own? Yep. Did you
know that women either chastely flounder in a purgatory of unrequited/inappropriate
workplace crushes, or have frequent meaningless hookups facilitated by open bars?
Well, that is how it goes. These are just some of the Rules of the Universe as laid out
by 27Dresses. Hitting on all these cliches require a pretty dense plot:
Katherine Heigls character, Jane, is an unpaid wedding planner. I guess she got her
job as assistant to the head of an ambiguous environmentally friendly
catalogue/publishing company right out of college, so she probably doesnt really
understand what a fair wage is. So on top of her ambiguous publishing job
(RomCom Bingo check!), shes been a bridesmaid at 27 weddings, 7 in the last year,
and shes the bridesmaid to out-organize all bridesmaids. In the first act, she works
two weddings in one night! Hilarity ensues. I just worry about her
unprofessionalism. I also wonder where she meets these brides, given shes only
seen having an actual friendship with the girl in the Judy Greer role (played Judy
Greer, which I think is some bitchin casting, especially because it let me fill another
square on my Bingo card) and has at least two full-time jobs.
Then there is Kevin, who writes the Commitments column in the Sunday NewYork
Journal. [I find the name of this fake newspaper very embarrassing, especially when

one of the brides worries about something embarrassing published in "the New
York Frickin'Journal."] Despite his job, Kevins jaded about weddings because he got

jilted by his fiance. (BINGO!) He wants to write a piece on Jane and her bizarre

unpaid second job as a wedding planner, but has trouble getting close to her until
hes assigned to write up her younger sisters wedding.
The younger sister, Tess, is marrying Janes boss, George. Jane has secretly loved
George for forever, adding a whole new dimension of pathetic sadness to her life.
Tess and George are perfect for each other because they are selfish, smug, and
obnoxious, but get away with it by being good-looking. Jane is miserable that shes
losing her love to her younger sister, but she doesnt do anything simple like say,
Hey, sis, remember all those times we talked about my boss with whom I am in
pathetic love? That is him. Because this is a movie, and it is more dramatic if she
says nothing and then ruins their wedding by revealing Tess fake vegetarianism at
the rehearsal dinner.
Kevin, to his credit, calls Jane on her stubborn selflessness multiple times throughout
the movie. She always brushes him off. After their inevitable boning, Kevins column
on Jane is inevitably published at the worst time, and she very reasonably stops
talking to him. But somehow his Very Levelheaded Man Message gets through her
Dense Lady Skull. [After, of course, she kisses her Boss/Little Sister's Ex-Fianc
because she had "Most Inappropriate Makeout Session Possible" on her Bucket List.]
So she marries the guy who showed her the light, although theres little indication
that shes actually learned how to have her own needs. Well, she does make
everyone shes ever worked for without pay stand up at her wedding in the dress
they made her wear:

Cute, right? Well, sometimes I like to attack clever things with logic bombs. Did she
have each bridesmaid find their own copy of their dress? Even the one with the hoop
skirt? How did that work?! How expensive was that? How does a lifelong doormat
get 27 fake friends to do this for her?
Or, are they wearing the actual dress that Jane wore? Alterations must have been a
bitch, even though Jane only hangs out with skinny chicks (so she can attend their
gown fittings for them). And what about the montage of dubious self-empowerment
wherein Jane put all the dresses in trash bags? I guess she then vacuum-sealed the
bags and shoved them under her bed? Sorry, not buying it. And for a movie so
committed to raw, realistic depiction of life as we know it, that ending is a drastic
departure in tone.

Honestly, despite the Olympic Clich Decathlon, I really enjoy this movie.
Sometimes I like things that are not good for me, like beer or Chicken McNuggets.
------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------27 Dresses is a 2008 comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. The film
stars Katherine Heigland James Marsden. The film was released January 10, 2008 in Australia and opened
in the United States on January 18.
Co

27 Dresses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

27 Dresses

Theatrical release poster

Directed by

Anne Fletcher

Produced by

Gary Barber
Roger Birnbaum
Jonathan Glickman

Written by

Aline Brosh McKenna

Starring

Katherine Heigl
James Marsden
Malin kerman
Edward Burns
Judy Greer
Maulik Pancholy

Music by

Randy Edelman

Cinematography

Peter James

Edited by

Priscilla Nedd-Friendly

Production

Fox 2000 Pictures

company

Spyglass Entertainment
Dune Entertainment III, LLC.

Distributed by

20th Century Fox

Release dates

January 10, 2008(Australia)

January 18, 2008(United
States)

Running time

111 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$30 million

Box office

$160.3 million[1]

27 Dresses is a 2008 comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Aline Brosh
McKenna. The film stars Katherine Heigland James Marsden. The film was released January 10,
2008 in Australia and opened in the United States on January 18.
Contents
[hide]

1Plot

2Cast

3Production

4Release
o

4.1Box office

4.2Critical response

4.3Home media

5Soundtrack

6References

7External links

Plot[edit]
Jane Nichols (Katherine Heigl) has been a bridesmaid for twenty-seven weddings. One night
when she is attending two weddings almost simultaneously, she meets Kevin Doyle (James
Marsden), who helps her home but disgusts her with his cynical views of marriage. He finds her
day planner which she'd forgotten in the cab they shared. Meanwhile, Jane's sister Tess (Malin
kerman) falls in love with Jane's boss George (Edward Burns) at first sight. Tess pretends to
like the same things that George does so that she can get him to like her. Despite loving George
herself, Jane does not reveal the truth and her sister's courtship progresses rapidly. Soon the
new couple announces that they intend to marry in only three weeks and Jane becomes the
wedding planner.
The reporter who agrees to cover their wedding for the society page turns out to be Kevin, who
writes wedding announcements under pseudonym Malcolm Doyle. Having looked at the contents
of Jane's planner before returning it, he then decides to use the contents as material for a piece
on the "perennial bridesmaid" and hopefully be promoted to writing investigative pieces about
"real" news.
Jane is unaware of Kevin's intentions, and when he asks to interview her for his column on Tess,
he gets her to try on all 27 bridesmaids dresses in her closet. He takes pictures of her in all of
them and sends them with the completed article to his boss. As they get to know each other
because of Tess's wedding, Kevin begins to think that Jane is not as one-dimensional as he
thought, and asks his editor to hold his article so he can "fix" it.
When Kevin finds out that Jane is getting her sister's marriage fixed with the man she loves, he
rebukes her. Jane agrees to one drink with Kevin and ends up getting drunk. Kevin and Jane kiss
and have sex in the car. Kevin's editor runs the article anyway on the front page of the
'Commitments' section. When Jane finds out about it the next morning, she feels betrayed and is
furious at him. Tess then gets angry at Jane for giving Kevin material about her, whom he
describes as a bridezilla. The fight escalates when Jane realizes that Tess altered their late
mother's wedding dress to her own choice, the last straw on Tess' string of lies to George and
demands on Jane.

Despite the fight, Tess still asks Jane to make a slideshow to show at her engagement party.
Jane decides that George should know the truth about Tess and instead runs pictures of Tess
with other men during her past years, eating ribs, and holding a cat by the tail - in short, doing all
the things she had told George that she never did. After Pedro, the young Hispanic child that
George mentors, tells the crowd that Tess had him cleaning George's apartment for money,
George breaks off the engagement.
Later at work, George tells Jane that he appreciates her because she never says no.
Remembering that Kevin once said the same thing as a criticism, Jane quits and admits she only
stayed at the job because she was in love with George. She discovers after an experimental kiss
that she no longer loves him and decides to meet Kevin. She announces in front of the entire
crowd at a wedding he is covering that she is in love with him.
One year later Jane and Kevin are now getting married. George and Tess meet in their wedding
again, and a hope for a second chance shows. All 27 brides Jane helped, as well as Tess and
Casey (Judy Greer), her best friend, are her bridesmaids, each wearing the dresses she once
wore as their bridesmaid.

Cast[edit]

Katherine Heigl as Jane Nichols

Peyton Roi List as Young Jane Nichols

James Marsden as Malcolm Kevin Doyle

Malin kerman as Tess Nichols

Charli Barcena as Young Tess Nichols

Edward Burns as George

Judy Greer as Casey

Melora Hardin as Maureen

Michael Ziegfeld as Khaleel

Brian Kerwin as Hal Nichols

Maulik Pancholy as Trent

David Castro as Pedro

Krysten Ritter as Gina

Production[edit]
Principal photography began on May 10, 2007. The film was primarily shot in the state of Rhode
Island. Locations included Rosecliff and Marble House mansions, a beach inCharlestown, East
Greenwich, and Providence. Filming also took place during two weeks in New York City.[2]

Release[edit]

Star Katherine Heigl at the film's premiere in Westwood

Box office[edit]
The film opened at #2 at the North American box office making USD 23 million in its opening
weekend behind Cloverfield. As of April 18, 2009, 27 Dresses had grossed $76,808,654 in North
America, and $83,450,665 overseas, for a total worldwide gross of $160,259,319. [3]
According to BoxOfficeGuru.com, "The audience for the $30M-budgeted 27 Dresses was
overwhelmingly female. Studio research showed that 75% of the crowd consisted of women, but
the audience was evenly split between persons over and under 25." [4]

Critical response[edit]
27 Dresses received generally mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten
Tomatoes reported that 41% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 148 reviews with
the comment being "The filmmakers perfectly follow the well-worn romantic comedy formula,
rendering 27 Dresses clichd and mostly forgettable."[5] Metacritic reported the film had an
average score of 47 out of 100, based on 31 reviews. [6]

Home media[edit]
The Blu-ray Disc and DVD was released on April 29, 2008 in the United States and July 29 in the
United Kingdom.