Sunday, May 11, 2008
27 dresses
From A.O. Scott's review of 27 dresses:
At the beginning of “27 Dresses,” Jane (Katherine Heigl), a serial bridesmaid with an almost pathological devotion to other people’s nuptials, spends a long night shuttling between two weddings. One is in Midtown Manhattan, the other in Brooklyn; one has an upper-crusty, white-bread look, while the other appears to be a Jewish-Hindu intermarriage. But as the director, Anne Fletcher, methodically cuts back and forth between them, she makes the reasonably insightful, moderately funny point that modern American weddings, however they may strain for individuality and specialness, are all pretty much alike.
The problem is that much the same could be said about modern American romantic comedies. There is a touch of idiosyncrasy here and there — in this one the heroine’s dad is a widower who owns a hardware store! — but most of the elements might as well have been pulled off the registry list at a high-end chain store.
The template is something like this: A career woman who lives in a bright and perky city (though usually not the one in which it was filmed; most of this Manhattan is actually Providence, R.I.) takes a bit under two hours to make it to the altar with (or at least be stopped at the airport by) the Right Guy, who had seemed at first to be the Wrong Guy. Earlier, the Wrong Guy had seemed to be the Right Guy.
I agree. It was a total paint by numbers romantic comedy. But if you love the genre (which I do), that is good enough. It was so perfect as a romantic comedy that I feel like the movie could serve as a manual for other aspiring rom-com writers. So, future romantic comedy writers, if you put these 9 elements (numbered, to go with the paint by numbers theme) in a movie, you too can create a movie I will happily watch over and over again on basic cable.
1. Woman who the audience is supposed to think is normal looking, just like them (Katherine Heigel)
2. good looking, witty Mr. Right with respectable job. (Jame Mardsen)
3. Complicated plot in which characters initially not interested but then fall in love (He is using her to get ahead in his career)
4. Banter.
5. Singing or dancing theme hopefully to well-known song. (In this movie, they did Benny and the Jets)
6. Big reveal after she has fallen for him. (Article about her being a bridesmaid 27 times comes used to further his career comes out after night of drunken singing and sex)
7. post-fight or big reveal montage of both characters feeling sad and looking into middle distance.
8. Emotional sharing. This is where they reveal their feelings for one another. (He comes to her sister's rehearsal dinner and says she deserves to be taken care of. She jumps on boat and says she is falling in love with him.)
9. Wedding.
At the beginning of “27 Dresses,” Jane (Katherine Heigl), a serial bridesmaid with an almost pathological devotion to other people’s nuptials, spends a long night shuttling between two weddings. One is in Midtown Manhattan, the other in Brooklyn; one has an upper-crusty, white-bread look, while the other appears to be a Jewish-Hindu intermarriage. But as the director, Anne Fletcher, methodically cuts back and forth between them, she makes the reasonably insightful, moderately funny point that modern American weddings, however they may strain for individuality and specialness, are all pretty much alike.
The problem is that much the same could be said about modern American romantic comedies. There is a touch of idiosyncrasy here and there — in this one the heroine’s dad is a widower who owns a hardware store! — but most of the elements might as well have been pulled off the registry list at a high-end chain store.
The template is something like this: A career woman who lives in a bright and perky city (though usually not the one in which it was filmed; most of this Manhattan is actually Providence, R.I.) takes a bit under two hours to make it to the altar with (or at least be stopped at the airport by) the Right Guy, who had seemed at first to be the Wrong Guy. Earlier, the Wrong Guy had seemed to be the Right Guy.
I agree. It was a total paint by numbers romantic comedy. But if you love the genre (which I do), that is good enough. It was so perfect as a romantic comedy that I feel like the movie could serve as a manual for other aspiring rom-com writers. So, future romantic comedy writers, if you put these 9 elements (numbered, to go with the paint by numbers theme) in a movie, you too can create a movie I will happily watch over and over again on basic cable.
1. Woman who the audience is supposed to think is normal looking, just like them (Katherine Heigel)
2. good looking, witty Mr. Right with respectable job. (Jame Mardsen)
3. Complicated plot in which characters initially not interested but then fall in love (He is using her to get ahead in his career)
4. Banter.
5. Singing or dancing theme hopefully to well-known song. (In this movie, they did Benny and the Jets)
6. Big reveal after she has fallen for him. (Article about her being a bridesmaid 27 times comes used to further his career comes out after night of drunken singing and sex)
7. post-fight or big reveal montage of both characters feeling sad and looking into middle distance.
8. Emotional sharing. This is where they reveal their feelings for one another. (He comes to her sister's rehearsal dinner and says she deserves to be taken care of. She jumps on boat and says she is falling in love with him.)
9. Wedding.
# posted by Julia @ 9:44 PM 
