27 Dresses (Widescreen) (2008)

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[The] sassy script gives the equally charming Heigl and Marsden plenty of Gable-Colbert-esque love/hate sniping to do....Fun and engaging..." 04/01/2008 p.60

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "For those who love a wacky wedding wheeze the performances are great fun, particularly from the two leads." 04/01/2008 p.51

ReelViews 7 of 10
If there's a romantic comedy cliche missed by choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher and her screenwriting cohort, Aline Brosh McKenna (who previously penned the smarter and edgier adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada), during the course of assembling 27 Dresses, I'm not sure what it is. Then again, most viewers who pay money to see this will not be on a quest for originality. As I've stated before, all a picture like this needs to succeed are charming actors who convince us they're in love. Everything else is beside the point...Heigl is the perfect romantic comedy lead - she's attractive, energetic, likeable, and willing to get raunchy if needed. 27 Dresses is more tame than Knocked Up, but she's no less appealing...Part of me enjoyed 27 Dresses in the same way I occasionally like to down a handful of chocolate covered raisins. They're not filling or nourishing but they provide a moment's forgettable pleasure. Heigl's appeal and talent elevate this to a little above the romantic comedy noise and, while it's strictly for self-appointed aficionados of the genre, there will be those who adore what Fletcher and her cast have wrought...So enjoy 27 Dresses' limited charms for what they are rather for when they are on display. This isn't a great movie but it fills a niche. - James Berardinelli
 
Salon.com 8 of 10
With its wound-tight-heroine/handsome-charmer/wisecracking-reporter love triangle, "27 Dresses" would appear to wish dearly to be a screwball heir to "The Philadelphia Story." There are moments director Anne Fletcher does pack in some fizzy, cheap-champagne charm, particularly when she allows the movie to go darker and tarter about weddings and their gauzy, pearl-encrusted trappings -- the registries for useless domestic swag, the childhood-snapshot-riddled engagement party slide shows, the near-bloodbath bouquet toss...The casting is likewise appealing. Heigl brings a steely strength to her ostensibly mousy character. Even with her hair a little darker to signify that she's the bland sister, we'd never believe the deft, disarmingly pouty actress as a mere dormouse. When Kevin asks Jane if she has needs of her own, she deadpans, "No. I'm Jesus." But Jane has needs up the wazoo. She needs to be the one everybody else needs. One look at her overstuffed Filofax and it's clear she gets off on running the show on everyone else's Very Special Day. Barking orders at cabdrivers, unblinking when negotiating with a baker, and drunk-dancing like a champ, Heigl's Jane is a comic force to reckon with. Yet the movie never lets the character blossom into anything more than a white-lace-fetishizing girl, hoarding clippings from the Commitments page. - Stephanie Zacharek