so i figured in dedication, to celebrate the day of st. valentine, i would observe and analyze some romance movies. with atonement unfortunately already ‘under the belt,’ my selections were few and far between. i settled, with a heaving sigh, to watch 27 dresses and p.s. i love you. this review is for the alpha selection.

katherine heigl [grey's anatomy] pulls her first triple-a title, co-starring with james marsden [x-men, superman returns] and some minor no-names. it’s of no astonishment, i’m sure, that i made presumptions about the film seconds after seeing the trailer. my stomach wrenched at the though of another down-and-out boring, fairy-tale-ending wedding story.

flashbacks occured: runaway bride, my best friends wedding, the wedding planner. i wept to myself with the possibilities, distraught with rampant rememberings of terrible screenings. this flick, however, is not nearly as terrible as the other meager attempts of wedding craziness. that’s because the movie isn’t a wedding move per say, it’s a love story and a comedy and a tale of realization.

heigl is a very amazon-esque woman of exquisite beauty but she adds a certain amount of quirkiness to her surroundings. she is impossible to ignore with her mixture of sarcastic bitter humor and strange amounting sense of sexiness. her actions are key to the film, a nice subtlety that adds neatly to the screen.

the true show stealer is james marsden. for an actor who portrays such a dick for his largest know role [cyclops], he is oozing with charm and personality in this polar opposite. his character is a journalist who chronicles heigls ascending ranks of bridesmaid hell, thus the name of the movie, 27 [bridesmaids]dresses. while he is just a sidekick to heigl, most scenes with him involved make the statuesque cutie seem like she’s playing second fiddle.

now a show of hands? who is mocking me as you read this. that’s what i thought. it’s a bit sappy but the movie had a terrific line up for it’s directing crew. anne fletcher [forty year old virgin, longest yard] directs to a keen script from aline mckenna [the devil wears prada, joss whedons' drive].

so while, in all honesty, i grudgingly have to admit that i enjoyed the movie for the majority, it has a few scathing flaws. the princess-meets-the-prince ending is embarrassingly foreseeable and choice moments of the movie are not funny. the chemistry between heigl and marsden is fine but every other relationship [with friends, parents, etc] seems contrived and never fleshed out.

i honestly didn’t really care about the wedding sub plot. the interesting themes were between the shots of weddings and such. watching heigl and marsden grow closer together despite several very noticeable difference is fun and mildly interesting as well.

there is nothing stunning and sparkling about 27 dresses but i admire it. it’s tough to make a film that isn’t horribly cliche, boring and ill-conceived. i didn’t hate this movie, i didn’t even dislike it. i would view it again on a date even. and a thousand times more than southland tales or walk hard.

bottom line: groan as much as you like, the movie is not that bad. it’s an above average, somewhat relate able chick flick. but it is a chick flick.

the movie is comparable to: the wedding planner, a lifetime channel story, talking to women about love and such for a few hours