27 Dresses (2008)

Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Aline Brosh McKenna

Perpetual bridesmaid Jane is forced to deal with her own insecurities as she plans the wedding of her younger sister and the man Jane secretly loves.

First, a little backstory on my connection with this film. I dig romantic comedies. I really do. Despite my love of schlocky horror and foreign art films, I'm a big softy at heart. My good friend Terri suggested that she pick a movie for me to write a blog entry on and I'd choose one for her. She chose 27 Dresses; in retaliation, I chose High Tension (2004). So this entry is going out in tribute to Terri and my own sister Kristy, who's getting married in two weeks. Okay, here goes.

Because my sister and I are very close, we grew up watching movies together. Mostly the classic 80s comedies like Ghostbusters (1984), Clue (1985), The Great Outdoors (1988), and "chick flicks" like When Harry Met Sally… (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Serendipity (2001) and Love, Actually (2003). I've always had a slight problem with the term "chick flick" because it seems that because they're geared toward women I shouldn't like them, but I do despite their adherence to certain genre expectations which I'll get into later. I got so many odd looks in school when that topic would come up.

The modern chick flick developed out of the older film de femmes, woman's weepers, or woman's film that were wildly popular through the 30s and into the 50s. These were largely maternal melodramas like Mildred Pierce (1945) and Stella Dallas (1937) with narratives centering on a strong female lead who sacrifices everything for her family or films of self-discovery like Now, Voyager (1942). At the same time, now classic romantic/screwball comedies were growing in popularity like It Happened One Night (1934), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Bringing Up Baby (1938), and Adam's Rib (1949). These and countless others mixed wonderful writing with accessible characters and stories. The films were largely marketed toward woman, the idea being women would go to the movies in the afternoons while shopping (as dramatized in David Lean's Brief Encounter [1945]). 27 Dresses takes the conventions developed by these earlier films and blends an awareness of itself as a genre picture, which many films began to do in the 1980s and 90s.

The greatest credit in 27 Dresses’ favor is its writing. While the story is very predictable, almost to a fault, the characterization of the leads is refreshing for what easily could have been a run-of-the-mill film. McKenna's story takes the genre expectations inherent in this kind of film (e.g. the cute meet, romantic obstacles, high jinks, etc.) and presents them in a new, reflexive way. The film opens with Jane's (Katherine Heigl) voiceover about finding her vocation at the age of eight helping to save her Cousin Lisa's wedding. Cut to twenty years later and Jane is a bridesmaid in two weddings on the same night, both of which she has coordinated. She shuttles between the two throughout the night, changing dresses in the back of a cab (a fun scene between her and driver Ziggy [Michael Ziegfeld]). All the while, she's caught the eye of Kevin "Malcolm" Doyle (James Marsden), a writer for the Commitments section of the New York Journal.

The subversion beings with the bouquet toss. As the bundle of flowers sails toward Jane, in slow motion of course, another guest comes out of nowhere to bodycheck her out of the way, knocking her unconscious. When she comes to, James Marsden is kneeling over her. Cute meet, check. During the cab ride to her apartment, their banter reveals Kevin's cynical attitude toward marriage which unnerves Jane to no end. He finds her bulky Filofax planner and discovers her almost unhealthy obsession with weddings. Using this, he hopes to move "out of the taffeta ghetto" and into legitimate writing. He pitches the idea to his editor Maureen (Melora Hardin, channeling her character of Jan from The Office to an extent) who eventually bites and he's on his way.

Jane, meanwhile, is the assistant to the founder of an eco-friendly clothing outfitter, George (Edward Burns, an underrated actor and talented director in my book) with whom she is in love. Her coworker/best friend Casey (Judy Greer) attempts to be Jane's voice of reason, consistently reminding Jane that her love for George is absurd. Enter the conflict: Jane's baby sister Tess (Malin Akerman). While at yet another engagement party, Tess meets George, and a relationship soon follows based on Tess' lies about her personality, told to suit George. At the same party, Kevin tracks down Jane to return her planner and plant the seed of writing his story. George asks Tess to marry him and Jane, after finding out what Kevin really does (unbeknownst to her, she is a big fan of his writing), becomes closer to the "angry marriage-hater." Kevin's exposé on Jane is printed thus ruining their blossoming relationship, she sabotages Tess' engagement only to realize she didn't really love George, and it's all happily wrapped up in the end.

As I said, 27 Dresses is very predicable in places but still a fun viewing. It takes the romantic comedy and grounds it with very real characters and a believable story. Marsden is surprisingly well cast as Kevin and brings a charm to the otherwise unsympathetic character while Akerman pulls off the egocentric ditz in spades. That is, except her confrontation scene with Jane towards the end. Throughout the film, Tess has been a manipulative, self-serving airhead, yet in this scene, she is able to succinctly articulate all of the internal conflict that has been brewing within Jane for the past two decades. Hokey but effective. Greer plays Casey with the right amount of exasperated wit and candor, speaking for the modern woman who doesn't live in a little girl's fantasy world. Most of the potentially sappy moments are undercut with McKenna's sharp writing and attention to expectation. While it won't go down as one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made, it certainly is one of the better entries the genre has seen in a very long time.

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