Crammed inside her closet are 25 bridesmaid gowns suitable for Halloween. After a Saturday doubleheader where she shuttles between Manhattan and Brooklyn nuptials, performing double duty as planner and attendant, she needs to make room for two more. Call her the Wedding Masher.
Marsden (the jut-jawed Prince of Enchanted, Corny Collins in Hairspray) is Kevin, the guy who writes the "Commitments" column in the New York Journal and sees Jane everywhere. In private, if not in print, he is contemptuous of the "bridal industry" that emphasizes the nuptials at the expense of what happens after. Call him the Wedding Trasher.
Tired of the sideshow, Jane wants to be the main event. But instead of putting herself out there, like her best friend Casey (Judy Greer, with bitch-perfect tone), Jane pines for her boss, George (Ed Burns), who treats doormats better than his assistant. Predictably, George falls for Jane's younger sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), hot and flaky as Jane is cool and collected. Naturally, Tess, who has no trouble expressing what she wants, wants Jane to plan her wedding and buy that 28th attendant's dress.
It's hard to watch Heigl, a brusque honey blonde who exudes sexual confidence like no one since Carole Lombard, play second fiddle, however briefly. Yet since My Best Friend's Wedding, Hollywood has specialized in movie comedies where the heroine is repeatedly chastised by friends and family about how unassertive, wrongheaded and jerky she is. This occurs throughout 27 Dresses, and it occurs throughout The Devil Wears Prada, a much better and more ambiguous film by 27 Dresses scribe Aline Brosh McKenna.
