I have to imagine the goal of this movie wasn’t to make me not like any of the characters. But, alas, it has happened.
Essentially, 27 Dresses (2008) is about a woman who is in love with her boss, George, but then looses him when her sister, Tess, moves to town and Tess and George fall in love. She is then put in charge of planning the wedding. Now, I don’t the correct way to react to your sister marrying the man you love, but what Katherine Heigal’s character did definitely wasn’t it. Namely, embarrassing her sister in her speech at the rehearsal dinner where she essentially laid out why they terrible together as a couple.
Then there was the true love interest of the movie, played by James Marsden, who is also not great. Charming? Sure, he was played by James Marsden, he’s always charming. But the character sucks. First of all, Katherine Heigal very clearly turns him down at first but he keeps pestering her to go out with him. Then when they do start spending time together, he is secretly writing an article about her and how sad it is that she is frequently a bridesmaid.
Then there is Katherine Heigal’s sister, Tess, who only gets together with George because she lies about having common interests with him. She also ruins their mother’s wedding dress, which she knows Katherine Heigal as always wanted to get married in.
George is cool though. He’s fine. His only flaw is that he was a bit too oblivious and never noticed that Katherine Heigal was very clearly in love with him.
But overall, the characters we are supposed to be rooting for are just awful to each other and I don’t know why these types of movies don’t make the main characters more likeable. We want to want the characters to get together but instead we’re just fine with the fact they got together because they both suck and deserve each other.
I don’t think I’m asking for too much in saying I want a romantic comedy with likable characters. And this movie isn’t that.
