Friday, February 8, 2008

dreamy and dreamier

I had the opportunity to see 27 Dresses for free last week, fulfilling my dream to see a cheezy, predictable rom-com without having to pay for it. The blog "Living the Romantic Comedy" explains pretty thoroughly here why 27 Dresses is just as predictable as anyone would suspect. It's a comedy in the Shakespearean tradition, with lots of banter and (spoilers, barely) a wedding at the end. Katherine Heigl is (of course) pretty and hapless in the starring role, but not too sympathetic a character for my tastes. I'm sure there are those women out there who do obsess over weddings to the point of cutting out well-written announcements and being a bridesmaid 27 damn times, but I'm not one of them. Maybe when I get to be a certain age...well, we'll see.

James Marsden is filling out as a very dreamy leading man, and as the LA Times noticed, has finally gotten the girl this time around. He's about the same amount too cynical as Heigl is too loftily romantic, but ends up being blandly likeable. It's Judy Greer, though, who for the millionth time steals the show. She's slutty and trashy and rolls her eyes at just the right time, and I totally want to hang out with her in real life. I do wish she'd asked a few more people to "say goodbye to these, 'cause it's the last time!" But, alas...

So, I'd say this one ranks somewhere above "catch it on HBO" but below "netflix" in terms of how you should see this movie. There is a gag in the final sequence that did take me by surprise, and was charmingly unexpected, and probably pushed it over the top of "yeah, see it if you get the chance" vs. "not worth it." Also, I may have been favorably biased because I was watching the movie in the same theater as The Most Incredible Audience Member In The World, Ever. TMIAMITWE sat right behind me and reacted more candidly to everything in the film than I would have ever thought possible. She laughed, snorted, gasped, tittered, guffawed, "aww'd," and squealed whenever the movie told her to. It was incredible how nude her predictability sensor was. I loved it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know two people that are that kind of audience member. It's such a struggle to decide whether seeing something with either one is captivating or just annoying.

The best audience member though was the guy in the front row when I saw Walk Hard. He made really loud disgusted noises every time anything remotely gay happened onscreen. I hope he makes he way westward someday so you can experience it too.

Anonymous said...

what kind of person has 27 good enough friends to a be a bridemaid for? like, what kind of social life are you leading?