Movie Review: 27 Dresses (2008)

A romantic comedy, 27 Dresses lines up and knocks down all the genre's predictable fundamentals in a story of woman learning to look after her own needs.

In New York City, super-organized Jane Nichols (Katherine Heigl) is always invited to be the maid of honour and efficiently helps her many friends pull together their weddings. Caring and selfless, she helped raise her sister Tess (Malin Åkerman) when their mother died at a young age. Now Jane harbours a secret crush on her clueless boss George (Edward Burns).

While helping out at two different weddings on the same night, Jane meets Kevin Doyle (James Marsden), who covers weddings for the New York Journal but is himself cynical about romance and the institution of marriage. Flirty Tess blows into town and immediately sets her sight on seducing George, while Jane rejects Kevin's overtures to start a relationship.

Writer Aline Brosh McKenna penned the exquisite The Devil Wears Prada, so 27 Dresses is a particular disappointment. This Katherine Heigl vehicle is a strictly formulaic rom-com as Jane stumbles to find herself and prioritize seeking her own happiness.

The moments of humour are bland, with sidekick Casey (the ever dependable Judy Greer) providing the typical caustic comments from the best friend vantage point. The romance elements are cold, Jane pining for a relationship with her boss George when he is clearly not interested, while ignoring Kevin who clearly is.

The contrived conflicts arrive courtesy of the forward Tess, who unlike her sister goes out and gets what she wants. A tangential subplot about Kevin writing a long piece about the always-bridesmaid Jane for his newspaper is used to cause the usual rift between would-be lovers, but is really an excuse for a montage featuring Heigl posing in the titular 27 dresses.

Director Anne Fletcher brings enough polish if not pizazz to the film, Heigl is dependable if vaguely disengaged, and 27 Dresses provides just enough talent to maintain a base level of interest. But a bursting wardrobe does not make a movie, and 27 Dresses needed fewer garments and much more edge.

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Movie Review: The Ugly Truth (2009)

An undistinctive romantic comedy, The Ugly Truth offers decent star power but can't wriggle out of the genre's straightjacket.

Abby (Katherine Heigl) is an unattached television producer, a believer in romance and still looking for the perfect Mr. Right. With ratings in a slump, her station brings on outspoken shock jock Mike (Gerard Butler) to juice up the show. Mike believes only in lust and that women who are seeking an ideal romance are deluded.

Abby and Mike immediately clash, but he nevertheless helps her to develop a budding relationship with her new next door neighbour Colin (Eric Winter), an orthopedic surgeon who seems too good to be true. Mike tutors Abby in the art of seduction and Colin falls for her charms. But Mike and Abby also start to develop feelings for each other, despite having little in common.

There is nothing in The Ugly Truth that isn't totally predictable. Director Robert Luketic is unable to do anything unique or original with the feeble material, and indeed the television studio news show setting reeks of rom-com ideas about 20 years behind the times. In the late 1980s films like Broadcast News and Switching Channels played in this space for better or worse, and here Abby's workspace is a flashing sign warning of no new ideas.

It is left to stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler to wring some laughs out of the dross, and they do on occasion deliver. Both Heigl and Butler are better than the movie, and thanks to a foul-mouthed script oriented at adults and full of say-what's-really-on-your-mind obscenities, The Ugly Truth at least allows Abby and Mike to fully have a go at each other with some spirited verbal sparring. It may be often juvenile and always low-brow, but there are laughs to be had in the clash between the idealistic romantic and the boorish chauvinist.

Along the way the film pokes some fun at both simplistic men and overcomplicated women, as the two protagonists inevitably push towards the middle. When Abby and Mike do finally emotionally connect on the dance floor and then in a hotel elevator, Luketic delivers a decent sequence where adults are rocked by the rush of unexpected feelings. And the latest attempt to mimic the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally is actually pretty funny.

Otherwise the pacing is clunky, the opposites attract theme too tired to even pretend to be convincing, and the supporting characters are straight out of cheap television sit-com territory. The truth is that despite two attractive stars, this film experience is mostly just ugly.

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Movie Review: The Big Wedding (2013)

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Movie Review: Jenny's Wedding (2015)

A coming out drama, Jenny's Wedding is a poorly constructed lightweight mess.

In Cleveland, Jenny (Katherine Heigl) has never revealed to her family that she is a lesbian. She now decides to get married to her long-time partner and roommate Kitty (Alexis Bledel), and works up the courage to have the difficult conversations with her mother Rose (Linda Emond) and father Eddie (Tom Wilkinson).

Rose and Eddie react poorly, and Rose demands that Jenny keep her sexual orientation a secret so as not create embarrassment to the family. With Jenny's sister Anne (Grace Gummer) and brother Michael (Matthew Metzger) initially kept in the dark, the miscommunication only results in a worsening spiral of gossip, secrets and cover-ups within the family and with close friends and neighbours, until Jenny snaps, confronts her parents and decides to bluntly come out to everyone.

An independent production directed and written by Mary Agnes Donoghue, Jenny's Wedding is well intentioned but also unfortunately poorly written and only has enough content for about 20 minutes of screen time. The difficulties of coming out in a relatively conservative Midwest suburban community are worth exploring, but the the story painfully lacks substance, imagination and nuance.

The linear narrative clearly heads towards a final hug fest, but Jenny's Wedding struggles mightily to make it to the 90 minute mark, and features plenty of cringe-worthy, half-complete dialogue scenes pretending to be profound but mainly falling flat. Distressed parents Rose and Eddie have pillow talk conversations including:

Eddie:  All you can do...is what you do.
Rose: What?
Eddie: All you can do is what you do.
Rose: What does that mean?
Eddie: It means what it means.

Late in the proceedings Eddie and his best buddy and fellow firefighter Denny (Sam McMurray) have an awkward talk-it-out scene climaxing with this stupefying exchange:

Denny: We've known each other a long time and...if I don't dig myself out...I lose. And that's why I'm here. To dig myself out.
Eddie: How do you do that?
Denny: I don't know. I never had to do it before. I guess I start with me, I mean...And that's why I'm here. To dig myself out of me.

But worse of all is Jenny's unhappily married sister Anne, who somehow becomes obsessed with the condition of her lawn grass as a metaphor for happiness. She goes on and on - and on - about the colour of her grass, dragging the film down to the level of an amateur production written by grade schoolers.

Meanwhile the dynamics of the relationship between Jenny and Kitty are underwritten and effectively ignored, Kitty reduced to a non-entity bystander role, the radiant Alexis Bledel comprehensively wasted.

With a schmaltzy soundtrack hammering home the obvious, Jenny's Wedding is an event to miss.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Katherine Heigl

All movies starring Katherine Heigl and reviewed on the Ace Black Blog are linked below:

Valentine (2001)

Knocked Up (2007)

27 Dresses (2008)

The Ugly Truth (2009)

Life As We Know It (2010)

New Year's Eve (2011)

The Big Wedding (2013)

Jenny's Wedding (2015)

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.
The Index of Movie Stars is here.

Movie Review: Knocked Up (2007)

A crude romantic comedy, Knocked Up does not hold back on the vulgarities but also finds a few good comic moments in the story of an unwanted pregnancy resulting from a drunken one night stand.

Alison (Katherine Heigl) works at the E! television channel, and is unexpectedly promoted to celebrity interviewer. To celebrate she goes out for a night of clubbing fun with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann), who is married to Pete (Paul Rudd) and the mother of two. Alison ends the night having unprotected sex with slacker Ben (Seth Rogen), who does nothing in life except get high and hang out with his equally useless friends Jason (Jason Segel), Jay (Jay Baruchel), Jonah (Jonah Hill) and Martin (Martin Starr). The morning after, Alison confirms that she has nothing in common with Ben and they part ways.

Eight weeks later Alison discovers that she is pregnant. She reconnects with Ben, and decides to go through with the pregnancy. They try to make it work as a couple, while Debbie and Pete face a crisis of their own. As the due date draws nearer, the stresses of the forced relationship between Alison and Ben come to the fore.

Directed and written by Judd Apatow, Knocked Up is a hit-and-miss romantic comedy, although the romance element is more of a search through the jungle of incompatibility. There are plenty of laughs to be sure, but also many jokes that fall flat and others that are overcooked. The improvisational, irreverent vibe is a welcome shot in the arm for an often tired genre, as is the unapologetic celebration of the brotherhood of offensive slackerhood. But there is only so much humour that can be squeezed out of men who waste their life on dope, juvenile sex jokes and the general pursuit of nothingness, and Knocked Up frequently bumps up against these limits.

Beneath the coarse exterior, Apatow does add thoughtful commentary on relationship dynamics. The women, through Alison and Debbie, are portrayed as more stressed but also more responsible and more caring. The men, represented primarily by Ben and Pete, are either diamonds in the rough, or just rough, seeking escape from the emotional responsibilities of adulthood through actions that avoid accountability. While the men seem to be more fun, it is the women who set the agenda and make the key decisions that strive towards meaningful happiness.

The cast is mostly made up of Apatow regulars, and they are all in, riding the wave of organic humour, soaring and crashing depending on the cleverness of the dialogue. With all the bromances in full flow, it is left to Heigl and Mann to provide any sense of organizational structure, and they deliver steady performances. The cast also includes Harold Ramis and Kristen Wiig in small roles, and a host of celebrity cameos.

Knocked Up works its way to a spectacular climax, the pregnancy reaching full term just as the reality of what it takes to achieve couplehood finally dawns on Ben, labour pain mixed with manic panic and over-the-top laughs.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Life As We Know It (2010)

The biggest challenge for romantic comedy writers is coming up with designs for new hoops to be jumped through by the inevitable lovers, prior to their arrival at the pre-determined happy ending.

Life As We Know It succeeds in reaching for a fairly new premise: Holly and Eric, who initially can't stand each other, are forced to jointly care for a baby under tragic circumstances. Life As We Know It turns a typical couplehood stress point on its head: instead of the pressures of planned parenting rupturing a pre-existing relationship, Holly and Ken are unexpectedly thrown into unwanted parenting roles, and the experience brings them closer.

Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Eric (Josh Duhamel) once went out on a date that turned into an unmitigated disaster. But Katherine is best friends with Alison (Christina Hendricks), and Eric is best buddies with Peter (Hayes MacArthur), and Alison and Peter are a happily married couple. Holly and Eric are therefore the appointed godparents of the newborn Sophie, the first daughter of Alison and Peter. The worst does happen, and Sophie is orphaned. Holly and Eric are suddenly thrust into becoming the parents of a baby, having to deal with overwhelming responsibilities while learning to tolerate each other.

Eric is a hopeless womanizer, and his new role as a parent makes him even more irresistible to a succession of one-night hook-ups. Holly attracts the attention of Sam (Josh Lucas), Sophie's pediatrician. But inevitably, Eric and Holly are drawn together and transition from mutually repelling each other to parents who become lovers. Life for Eric gets complicated again when he gets the career opportunity of a lifetime, but accepting it would mean relocating away from his new roles of an accidental father to Sophie and unexpected partner to Holly.

Watching adults muddle through early parenting responsibilities is funny but well-worn movie territory. Life As We Know It trots out the typical laughs that stem from diaper changes, baby-sitters who are more capable than the parents, and exhausting night-long car drives to sooth the baby. But director Greg Berlanti keeps his eye on ball, and the travails of parenting in Life As We Know It are all about Holly and Eric discovering what they are individually capable of, and seeing in each other as partners something much more than what they were as singles.

The film demonstrates more than the usual bravery in hinging a romantic comedy on a tragedy, and the drama that underpins the narrative ensures that a serious undertone permeates through Life As We Know It, keeping the laughs in control and allowing plenty of time for examining themes of loss and sudden responsibility -- not the typical fare for what is often a light-headed genre. The relatively unique setting of Atlanta, Georgia is another plus -- romantic comedies can exist outside of New York.

Heigl, still struggling to carve out a post-Grey's Anatomy movie career, is a likable female lead, more approachable and earthy than a Jennifer Aniston, and less brash than a Kate Hudson. From the mild and predictable menu of comic, dramatic, attractive, sexy and romantic emotions required in the genre, Heigl is not brilliant at any one thing, but is at least above-average in all of them. Josh Duhamel is only in the movie for his hunky I-think-I'm-so-cool-on-my-motorcycle looks, and not even he appears to be attempting to pretend otherwise. The supporting cast is bland enough to inoffensively deliver the expected sideline quips while barely leaving a mark.

The movie does suffer from a typical fundamental weakness of romantic comedies, in glossing over exactly what triggers the attraction between Holly and Eric. A lot of minutes are invested in highlighting why these two simply do not get along. After episodes of splattered baby poo, diaper changes, and loud arguments, they suddenly fall into each other's arms, just because the running time is dangerously approaching the two hour mark.

The interesting premise of Life As We Know It does not a great movie make, but in this genre, interesting is often quite good enough.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Valentine (2001)

A slasher flick that stumbles around looking for a new idea - any new idea - to contribute to the genre. Finding absolutely none, it dies a painfully boring death on the field of bankrupt inspiration.

Rather that describe yet another collection of deserve-to-die drama queens getting unimaginatively slaughtered because years earlier they were mean to their 6th grade class dork, it is more interesting to examine some related career trajectories. Proving without a doubt that being a Bond girl is no guarantee of success, Denise Richards nosedives from co-starring with Bond in The World Is Not Enough (1999) to Valentine two short years later.

This does not discourage director Jamie Blanks from finding all possible reasons to point his cameras at Richards, her highlight a scene in which she leaves a lecherous would-be boyfriend tied-up and naked, only for the script to completely forget about the poor guy.

Heading in the other direction in terms of relative career success, Valentine strangely proved itself to be a training ground for two future Grey's Anatomy actresses. Katherine Heigl is the first victim to be slaughtered in the movie, and in the spookiest achievement of the film, she is a medical student! Heigl's brief scenes, which open Valentine, appear to be almost wholly unrelated to the rest of the movie. 

Another future Grey's Anatomy star is Jessica Capshaw, and here she gets to complain about never getting the attention of hunky guys. The rest of the cast members simply strengthen their grip on obscurity, a fate the film fully earns.

All Ace Black Movie Blog Reviews are here.