"Knocked Up" has even been cited as Exhibit A in condemning '07 as a bad year for women. If Heigl occupied the quintessential female role - pregnant and slapping a man into some kind of decent shape - then it's a sorry state for gals.
There are calls for more glamorous roles, for screenplays worthy of a big-screen siren. Maybe that's what the makers of "27 Dresses" intended, and what Heigl thought she was signing up for.
Certainly it's an expansive showcase for Heigl, who consumes large amounts of screen time as Jane, a semipro bridesmaid who's so expert at being in the wedding party that she becomes a formal, unpaid adviser.
She's been to 27 weddings in all - the title derives from the many gaudy bridesmaid outfits she's forced to wear, representing such tasteless themes as "Gone with the Wind."
"27 Dresses" opens with Jane attending two weddings in the same night, changing quickly in a cab as she shuttles back and forth between nuptials. It's meant to be chick-movie catnip - a zillion costume changes, wedding rituals doubled and delivered at twice the usual pace.
But is this Step One in building a better movie year for women? One of Jane's double-duty chores is to lift the bride's train so she can safely urinate. I liked Heigl better pregnant and angry. Crowning, even.
The busy plot has Jane pestered by a writer (James Marsden) who's secretly doing a feature story about her crazy hobby, even as she moons at her handsome boss (Edward Burns) - an angle that grows complicated when Jane's guy-magnet fashion model sister (Malin Akerman) shows up and steals the guy's heart.
This sets the sisters against each other, and I have to say, I much preferred the updated battle-of-the-sexes Judd Apatow gives us in "Knocked Up" to this soap-ish spectacle of cat-fighting, undermining, backstabbing, and public humiliation. *
Produced by Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman, directed by Anne Fletcher, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, music by Randy Edelman, distributed by Fox 2000.
