27 Dresses

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, and that's how Jane Nichols, the heroine of the glossy but formulaic romantic comedy "27 Dresses" (Fox), likes it. This perennial bridesmaid, played engagingly by Katherine Heigl, has been a hopeless romantic since girlhood but has shied away from a relationship of her own.

When she's accidentally knocked unconscious during a bouquet toss at one of two (count 'em!) New York weddings she's shuttling between in one evening, it is affable young Kevin (James Marsden) who revives her. He'd seem to be the perfect match for her, but his cynical observations about marriage offend her. She is unaware that he is, in fact, the "commitments" columnist she idolizes for his wonderfully observant and sensitive write-ups in each week's edition of the (fictitious) New York Journal.

Jane has left behind her datebook, which Kevin finds, allowing him to discover Jane's rigorous wedding schedule which he reads with bemused fascination. He decides to write a feature story on her, while he pursues her romantically, though he, too, is commitment-shy, for reasons that emerge late in the narrative.

Jane silently pines for her boss, George (Edward Burns), the CEO of an environmentally friendly clothing and equipment company, but he continues to view her merely as his faithful, ever-resourceful assistant.

When Jane's glamorous but superficial kid sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), rolls into town, George is duly smitten, and self-effacing Jane covers her hurt, and goes along stoically with helping Sis plan the ensuing wedding, even allowing Tess to wear their late mother's wedding dress, which Jane had planned, as the older sister, to wear herself. Kevin is assigned to cover the Tess-George union, which allows for more research on Jane.

Much of Aline Brosh McKenna's script registers as by-the-numbers predictable, sometimes resembling one of those Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedies of yore. The basic setup is patently contrived, and Jane's selflessness begins to strain credulity, even for a lightweight romantic comedy.

Still, Anne Fletcher's smooth direction, Heigl's self-deprecating charm and the rest of the personable cast compensate, resulting in a film never less than pleasant with a satisfying and morally sound plot resolution.

The film contains some crude language, crass expressions, a superfluous bathroom scene, an implied nonmarital sexual encounter, and mild sexual banter and innuendo. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops