Heigl elevates rom-com cliches in '27 Dresses'
"27 Dresses" -- Katherine Heigl caused a stir when she criticized her breakout film, the Judd Apatow comedy "Knocked Up," as sexist. I'm interested to hear what she'll say about her follow-up, "27 Dresses," which is yet another romantic comedy about a woman whose primary goal is to be married.
Heigl plays Jane, an attractive, intelligent, but unlucky-in-love woman who has spent the majority of her adult life wearing ugly bridesmaid dresses in her friends' weddings. She endures these celebrations like a champ, but inside she pines for the day when she's the one throwing the bouquet. A possible Prince Charming for Jane is her boss, whom she secretly loves. But then he falls for Jane's hot-but-phony sister, Tess, and Jane is put in the humiliating position of having to plan their wedding -- always hopeful, of course, that her boss will come to his senses and choose her.
On top of all this, Jane is pursued by a cynical journalist played by James Marsden, whom guys will recognize as Cyclops from the "X-Men" films. (Alas, he doesn't have any cool super powers here.) Kevin writes flowery articles (using a pseudonym) about weddings for a New York paper, despite the fact that he despises the entire wedding/marriage industry. Desperate to move off the weddings beat, he decides to expose the ridiculousness of the industry by writing a scathing feature about Jane and her 27 awful bridesmaid dresses.
I won't give away any more of the plot, though if you haven't figured it all out by now, you must not have seen any romantic comedy from the past 20 years; "27 Dresses" follows the rom-com formula to the letter, right down to the last-minute cab ride in pursuit of Mr. Right. The film does have a secret weapon, though, and that's Heigl, who lights up the screen every time she appears. She has a gift for comic timing, and her delivery helps elevate the cliched "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" dialogue. If you melt at the sight of true-love's kiss, you'll probably like "27 Dresses." But I wish the movie gave the appealing Heigl something more interesting to say and do. The DVD includes deleted scenes and an array of fairly standard featurettes. (PG-13; Fox, $29.98)
"How She Move" -- Moving from one well-worn genre to another, let's take a look at "How She Move," the latest in a spate of urban dance films. Like last year's hit "Stomp the Yard," the movie is about a talented youth from the inner city who uses dance as a way to a better life.
Raya is a bright girl from the projects of Toronto who is forced to withdraw from a well-heeled private school when her parents spend the tuition fund on an unsuccessful fight against her sister's drug addiction. Back on the mean streets, Raya decides to enter a step-dancing competition in the hopes of using the prize money to re-enroll in school. The film, of course, builds to a climactic dance-off at the end.
There is much to like about "How She Move." The young cast, including newcomer Rutina Wesley as Raya, gives the movie a raw, dynamic realism, and the dance sequences are fantastic. I also liked the few glimpses the movie offers of the Jamaican families struggling to get by in these projects. But the script is a patchwork of cliches. Each story point feels so familiar that you'll be shrugging, not cheering, after the final dance sequence. The DVD comes with a series of making-of featurettes and the theatrical trailer. (PG-13; Paramount, $29.99).