2008 Movie #7: "27 Dresses"

Quite often a great lead performance can turn a middling rom-com into a good film simply by sheer energy and magnetism (see Amy Adams in "Enchanted" or even Jennifer Garner in "13 Going on 30"). Unfortunately "27 Dresses" is not that movie.

That's not a knock on the film's star Katherine Heigl as much as the rest of the movie. If the rest of the film were merely middling, Heigl might have pushed it over the top. Instead what we're left with is a frequently cringe-inducing, by-the-book rom-com made occasionally watchable by an utterly appealing lead performance.

The "Grey's Anatomy" star plays Jane Nichols, who has worn those 27 dresses as a bridesmaid in 27 weddings. We see her initially trading off between two of them, shuttling back and forth to be a bridesmaid at two different weddings in the same night. In doing so, she catches the eye of marriage cynic Kevin Doyle (James Marsden, "Enchanted"), who unbeknownst to her also happens to be the New York Post's wedding columnist, whose sappy prose the wedding-loving Jane clips and saves.

But the prospect of wedding No. 28 might be too much for Jane, as her younger sister Tess (Malin Ackerman) has used a few fibs to snare Jane's boss and the man of her dreams, George (Edward Burns).

As anyone who watched her gamely hold her own and then some in "Knocked Up" knows, Heigl can do comedy while also creating an interesting, three-dimensional character. Her energy is infectious, and even makes the standard rom-com sing-along appealing, at least for its first 30 seconds. Unfortunately, with the exception of the always-welcome Judy Greer as Heigl's snarky best friend, not much else about the film works. The script portrays George as a man of energy and passion and vision, someone who you could see the romantic Jane falling head-over-heels for. Unfortunately none of that comes through in Burns' somnabulent performance. Marsden fairs a little better, coasting through some parts on his charm, but his character is often so poorly written that he feels more like a scripting construct than a wedding columnist. Tack on a bunch of cookie-cutter rom-com scenes and a too tidy by half resolution and you've got yourself a film that's only amusing during those moments when Heigl is able to will it to be so. It probably won't be nearly the worst movie I see this year, but it's very easy to see that Katherine Heigl deserves a lot better.

(At Eric's request) D+