27 Dresses.

"'From the writer of The Devil Wears Prada,' screams the poster for the new comedy 27 Dresses, and while that earlier film was a sprightly and entertaining adaptation of a contemporary best-seller, its 1950s heart was loaded with propaganda telling women that they needed to focus on getting a man instead of on their careers," writes Alonso Duralde for MSNBC. "Writer Aline Brosh McKenna's latest effort instructs women to be doormats for men who treat them like crap, because heaven forbid they wind up never getting married. Is Phyllis Schlafly using a pen-name?"

"27 Dresses is a chick-flick on a sugar high, so giggly-bouncy and nostalgic for the fantasy-girlhood of its audience that the DVD, which should follow relatively quickly, should come packaged in big pink bows and include a coupon for a free pony ride," writes Ryan Stewart for Premiere.

The New York Times' AO Scott has a little fun with the lay-out-the-plot mid-section of his review: "For ease of reference let's call the one the heroine ends up with the Right Wrong Guy and the one she rejects the Wrong Right Guy. In the case of 27 Dresses the Right Wrong Guy is James Marsden, who recently played the Wrong Right Guy in Enchanted, while the Wrong Right Guy is Edward Burns, who gets to be the Right Wrong Guy mostly in movies he writes and directs himself."

"[T]here's something undeniably interesting about how formula has superseded logic, significance or character in so much studio product that certain types of genre stories have become closed circuits, infinite loops," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. "Do we need to keep hearing the same comforting story over and over again like toddlers, or does somebody just think we do? It doesn't matter. A movie like 27 Dresses has its pleasures, but to enjoy them it's best to approach it with the eyes - and experience, emotional maturity level and love of repetition - of a child."

"Made 10 years ago, it probably would have starred a vacationing cast member from Friends," suggests Keith Phipps at the AV Club.

"27 Dresses cobbles ideas from The Devil Wears Prada, The Wedding Planner and Runaway Bride, but it's actually more like last year's obnoxiously cute Juno and bizarrely flirtatious PS I Love You," writes Armond White in the New York Press. "Each film features a heroine who is not like women you know but an unbelievable woman you'd hate to know."

"It's not the job of Hollywood fluff to proselytize, but the story could have been so much smarter and sharper had it not swallowed the big, white, sugary pill wholesale," writes Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon. "Even Four Weddings and a Funeral allowed for a gay union and the possibility of happily unmarried ever after."

"Like the wedding section of many newspapers, 27 Dresses often relies more on the female obsession with all things bridal than on a strong story," writes Meghan Keane in the New York Sun.

"A forgettable, formulaic comedy so predictable that seeing it and skipping it are the exact same thing," sighs Robert Wilonsky in the Voice.

Posted by dwhudson at January 18, 2008 9:14 AM