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27 Dresses

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27 Dresses
A woman standing against a white background in a long white dress, which is patterned with lines of black text, and the title "27 Dresses" in a large splash of pink text
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAnne Fletcher
Written byAline Brosh McKenna
Produced byGary Barber
Roger Birnbaum
Jonathan Glickman
Starring
CinematographyPeter James
Edited byPriscilla Nedd-Friendly
Music byRandy Edelman
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • January 10, 2008 (2008-01-10) (Australia)
  • January 18, 2008 (2008-01-18) (United States)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[1]
Box office$162.7 million[2]

27 Dresses is a 2008 American romantic comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. It stars Katherine Heigl as a woman who has served as a bridesmaid 27 times and faces a turning point when her younger sister becomes engaged to the man she secretly loves. James Marsden, Edward Burns, Malin Akerman, and Judy Greer appear in supporting roles.

Produced by Spyglass Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film was conceived following the success of McKenna’s screenplay for The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Principal photography took place in New York City and Rhode Island from May to July 2007.

27 Dresses premiered in Los Angeles on January 7, 2008, and was released theatrically in the United States on January 18. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise directed at Heigl’s performance and criticism aimed at its formulaic plot. It emerged as a commercial success, grossing $162.7 million worldwide against a $30 million budget.

Plot

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Jane Nichols has served as a bridesmaid at 27 weddings, consistently putting others’ needs before her own. One night, while attending two ceremonies on the same evening, she meets Kevin Doyle, a cynical writer who disdains the romantic ideals Jane embraces. After sharing a cab, Jane accidentally leaves behind her day planner, which Kevin uses to learn more about her. Writing under the pseudonym "Malcolm," Kevin sees Jane as the subject for a potential story.

Jane’s younger sister, Tess, returns from Europe and soon begins a relationship with Jane’s boss, George, for whom Jane harbors unspoken feelings. Tess pretends to share George’s interests to impress him, and the two quickly become engaged. Jane, though heartbroken, agrees to plan their wedding.

Kevin, assigned to cover Tess and George’s wedding for the newspaper’s Commitments section, continues researching Jane while concealing his true intentions. During the process, he and Jane begin to bond. She reveals her closet of 27 bridesmaid dresses, which Kevin photographs. Though he develops genuine feelings for her, his article is published without her knowledge. When Jane discovers the piece, she feels betrayed and ends their relationship.

Meanwhile, Tess’s deceptions begin to unravel. She alters their late mother’s wedding gown for her own use, prompting a rift with Jane. At Tess’s engagement party, Jane retaliates by showing a slideshow that exposes Tess’s fabrications. When George learns that Tess has been dishonest and manipulative, including paying a young boy he mentors to clean his apartment, he calls off the wedding.

At work, George compliments Jane for her reliability, echoing a past remark from Kevin that she never says no. Realizing her motivations have been driven by unrequited love, Jane quits her job. After a brief kiss with George, she acknowledges her feelings for him have faded. She later finds Kevin at another wedding and confesses her love.

One year later, Jane and Kevin marry in a beach ceremony. All 27 brides for whom Jane previously stood serve as her bridesmaids, each wearing the dress Jane once wore at their weddings.

Cast

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Production

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Principal photography for 27 Dresses began on May 10, 2007, with filming taking place primarily in Rhode Island. Notable locations included the Rosecliff and Marble House mansions in Newport, a beach in Charlestown, and sites in East Greenwich and Providence. Additional filming occurred over a two-week period in New York City.[3]

Costume design was led by Catherine Marie Thomas. Director Anne Fletcher requested that the bridesmaid dresses be "big, ugly, and bright," representing a wide range of color palettes and styles. Thomas designed approximately fifty potential dresses and a few suits, from which she and Fletcher selected twenty-seven to feature in the film.[4]

Release

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Heigl in a grey and silver dress, behind her several women wearing the same white dress from the film poster
Katherine Heigl at the film's premiere in Westwood, Los Angeles

Box office

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27 Dresses was released theatrically in the United States on January 18, 2008. It opened at number two at the North American box office, earning $23 million in its opening weekend, behind Cloverfield. The film went on to gross $76.8 million in North America and $85.8 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $162.7 million against a production budget of $30 million.[2]

According to BoxOfficeGuru.com, the film's audience was predominantly female, with studio research indicating that 75 percent of viewers were women. The demographic was otherwise evenly divided between viewers over and under the age of 25.[5]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 40% of 154 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus reads: "The filmmakers perfectly follow the well-worn romantic comedy formula, rendering 27 Dresses clichéd and mostly forgettable."[6] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

Cath Clarke of The Guardian criticized the film for underutilizing Katherine Heigl’s comedic abilities, writing, "What a maddening waste of Heigl this insipid romantic comedy is." Clarke felt the script missed an opportunity for satire within the Manhattan wedding scene.[9] Peter Howell of the Toronto Star wrote that the film "shamelessly trades in the hoariest of chick-flick clichés" and faulted screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna for relying on "cheap gags" rather than the incisive wit found in her earlier work, The Devil Wears Prada (2006).[10]

Accolades

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Award Date of Ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Golden Trailer Awards May 8, 2008 Best Romance 27 Dresses|style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated [11]
style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won
Best Romance TV Spot style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won
Teen Choice Awards August 4, 2008 Choice Movie – Chick Flick style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won [12]
Choice Movie Actor – Comedy James Marsden (also for Enchanted)|style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated [13]
Artios Awards November 10, 2008 Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Big Budget Feature (Comedy) Cathy Sandrich Gelfond and Amanda Mackey Nominated [14]
Alliance of Women Film Journalists December 15, 2008 Hall of Shame 27 Dresses|style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won [15]
People's Choice Awards January 7, 2009 Favorite Comedy Movie Won [16]

Soundtrack

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The film features an original score composed by Randy Edelman. In addition to the score, 27 Dresses includes numerous contemporary songs by other artists, which are used throughout the film. However, these tracks are not included on the official soundtrack release, which contains only Edelman's original compositions.

Home media

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27 Dresses was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on April 29, 2008.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "27 Dresses (2008) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
  2. ^ a b "27 Dresses". Box Office Mojo.
  3. ^ "Film > 27 Dresses – Production Notes". Kheigl.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-01. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  4. ^ ""27 Dresses" a costume designer's dream". Reuters. 10 January 2008.
  5. ^ Gitesh Pandya. "Weekend Box Office (January 18 - 21, 2008)".
  6. ^ "27 Dresses". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 25, 2024. Edit this at Wikidata
  7. ^ "27 Dresses". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
  8. ^ Joshua Rich (January 23, 2008). "Cloverfield sets box office records". Entertainment Weekly. Its crowd (which was a whopping 87 percent female) was doubly charmed, granting the romantic comedy a respectable B+ CinemaScore mark.
  9. ^ Clarke, Cath (March 28, 2008). "27 Dresses". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  10. ^ Howell, Peter (January 18, 2008). "'27 Dresses': Comedy left at the altar". Toronto Star. Torstar Media Group. Archived from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  11. ^ "Golden Trailer Awards". 2011-08-06. Archived from the original on 2011-08-06. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  12. ^ Lang, Derrik (4 August 2008). "2008 Teen Choice Awards". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  13. ^ "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-05. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  14. ^ "2008 Artios Awards". www.castingsociety.com. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  15. ^ "2008 EDA Awards Nominees – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS". Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  16. ^ "People's Choice Awards Nominees & Winners:2009 - PeoplesChoice.com". 2009-10-27. Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
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