The Obligatory Rom-Com

Because I've been reading Pierre Bayard's How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read, a provocatively perverse book that makes a good case for the idea that you don't have to actually read something to know what it is, I was sorely tempted to blog about this past weekend's romantic comedy debut 27 Dresses without actually having seen it. 

And I coulda!  As it turns out.  Problem is, I had already read the script, so this exercise wouldn't have provided quite the fun challenge it should have.  And the other thing is, I don't really want to abuse the trust of anyone who reads me regularly.  So I dutifully went to the multiplex and once again took one for the team.

Well, it's not that bad.  It's not that great, either.  27 Dresses is not that... much of anything, but chances are good it'll make some good money.  It's one of those productions I call an Obligatory Movie: it's a film that sooner or later was bound to get made.

The Obligatory Movie announces itself on the script-reading frontlines when you start seeing a whole lot of specs that are more or less variations on the same concept and story -- a phenomenon that occurs more often than you might think, in the belly of the industry beast.  In this case, over a period of two or three years, as studio story analyst and screenwriting instructor, I read half a dozen screenplays that had the same title: Always a Bridesmaid.  No plagiarism or imitation involved -- each of the six was simply a disparate writer's take on That Movie.

Weird, eh?  But not.  Here's the two inescapable factors that both created the glut and got Dresses greenlit.  One is the pre-existence of what's become an extremely popular sub-genre: the wedding romantic comedy.  From Four Weddings and a Funeral back in 1994 (you can blame Richard Curtis and the then-unknown Hugh Grant for kicking things off) through My Best Friend's Wedding, Runaway Bride, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Wedding Singer and more recently, Wedding Crashers, to name but a few more notable successes, romantic comedies that exploit the nuptial milieu have been ringing the bells that go ka-ching! 

The second factor is cultural: in real life, weddings as a commercial concern have been booming in the 2000s, with an industry that's flourished on codifying every aspect of this beloved ritual to the point of outre absurdity: the over-the-top floral arrangements, gift registries, and yes -- those bridesmaid dresses.  With its penchant for casting lovelorn misfits as empathetic protagonists, it was only a matter of time before the romantic comedy genre zoomed in on the likeliest exploitable victim of modern wedding madness.  And thus, the Obligatory Bridesmaid Movie.

Whatever bloggers or legitimate critics or anyone with opinions may have to say about 27 Dresses, The One That Got Made Before the Others, ultimately it doesn't matter -- there will always be an audience for comfort food entertainment.  And Dresses delivers exactly what one might expect from the menu.

Funny weddings montage?  Right there at the top.  The bridesmaid heroine's wise-cracking best friend?  On tap.  An eminently marry-able but achingly unattainable Mr. Right (check!)... versus an obnoxious seeming-Mr. Wrong who loves to make fun of weddings?  You bet.  And say, a cutely dated pop tune to be sung karaoke-style by the leads, en route to realizing that he/she's maybe not so bad after all?  Yuh-huh.  Will there be dress-fittings, registry-shoppings, wedding dinner food-tastings, set in that imaginary Manhattan one only sees in the movies... with an ethnically diverse cast that'll make this hoary, tattered material seem PC contemporary?  Whaddya think?!

Nonetheless, given Katherine Heigl's game performance, a few amusing moments and a couple of dramatic confrontations that could've been legitimately poignant had the dialogue not been so wincingly on-the-nose, it makes little sense to get all snarky at a movie that's merely filling, the rom-com equivalent of an average burger and shake. 

No, my only issues with mediocre genre entries like this one are:  a) they tend to give our hardy but often belittled genre a bad name -- belittled precisely because the less-good rom-coms are so stupefyingly predictable, and b) if they make enough money, they encourage the studios to make more of the same: unchallenging, play-it-safe pap that shelves any and all imaginative possibilities available to the funny love story genre, in the name of giving people only what they (supposedly) want. 

Here's a bad sign: One of the trailers that preceded my 27 Dresses showing was for an upcoming romantic comedy with Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy is now the official breeding pool for rom-com stars) as a guy whose female best friend --whom he's just realized he's in love with -- asks for his help with her wedding.  That's right folks -- are you ready for Made of Honor? 

Lord, I wish I weren't.

   

Comments

[E.C. Henry]

Billy, thanks for "taking one for the team" and watching a show that going into it you had low expectations for. Like you, I too LOVE the romantic comedy genre, and tend to cringe when the powers that be crack out movies that fail to make the magic that the romatic comedy CAN deliver when excuted properly.

Haven't seen "27 Dresses" yet. After reading you review, it sounds like something to watch when it comes out on DVD. Even if a show bombs chances are there is some redeaming qualities about them. I LOVE watching tallent emerge. Was totally hoping "27 Dresses" put Katherine Heigl over the top, and made her the next Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan.

The romantic comedy genre needs good news. When's the next Judd Apatow going to take the industry by storm?!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

[Christina]

Guilty.

I wrote an "always a bridesmaid" script back in early 2006 called Kung Fu Bridesmaid. Imagine wire fu in the 3rd act, when the humble bridesmaid has to tame her supposed best friend, the beast Bridezilla, as she stamps around before the wedding and yells at the caterers. The cake is one of the first casualties. Then, the main course - roasted leg of boar - is used a sword versus a chafing dish. You get the picture, it's Lucille Ball meets Kill Bill.

I never actually sent it anywhere but a couple of contests [ended up Austin 2nd rounder]. A friend at Dreamworks cautioned me the budget alone would stop it from ever being made. Still, I know it could flip 27 Dresses on its head.

[binnie]

I'm sure I won't see this movie, but the picture of Kathryn Heigl with the bindi on her head reminds me of how I met the man who is now my ex. We were both subbing for the regulars in a wedding band (me on vocals, him on keys) where the bride was Hindi, the groom was Jewish, and watching half the bridal party do the hora in saris was pretty wild. Things starting going downhill during the best man's speech, where he alluded to the fact that he and the groom had been much more than friends, and the groom's mother looked like she was about to have a stroke, and everyone else was just frozen. The bandmembers, who normally couldn't care less about who says what during a speech, were riveted, and I remember turning to my now-ex and saying, "If this wedding is over right now, do we still get paid?"

[MaryAn]

But looking at the different dresses was entertaining.

[mernitman]

E.C. -- given the movie's strong opening weekend, it looks like Katherine Heigl will get her shot at that Julia crown.

Christina: Your Kung Fu variant sounds better than the other five I read!

Binnie: Somewhere there is a session singer/player romantic comedy just waiting to be written...

MaryAn: See anything you like?

[pat]

You left the bland "The Wedding Planner" off your list of recent wedding movies, wisely I'd say. If you ever need a subject idea, I think a person could write a few thousand words on how annoying McGaunagirkle (however you spell that) is as an actor/male glamor puss.

[Rosina Lippi]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and claim that a movie could still be good -- even great -- despite a formulaic structure and approach. If you could somehow wipe your memory clean (temporarily) just before you went into see one of those obligatory romcoms, you'd be free to judge it on its own merits and not in the greater context of every movie ever made. There's no Alzheimers in my family and I hope I'm not the first, but I also have to admit that there's something appealing in the idea of being able to experience certain things for the first time -- again. When Harry Met Sally, for example. Who cares that it's yet another retelling of best friends falling in love? All I remember from the first time I saw it was complete and utter fascination and delight.
I think I garbled my argument somewhat, but maybe something of it will survive.

[Lis Fies]

"with an industry that's flourished on codifying every aspect of this beloved ritual to the point of outre absurdity"

Thanks for bringing this travesty up. I find the emphasis on materialism over love so offensive, I can't imagine a young couple surviving the large debt we watch them accrue on their first day of wedded bliss! Hard to cheers them when I'm already picturing the divorce...

[mernitman]

Pat: If you don't have anything nice to say about Matthew McHuh?, then sit right next to me.

Rosina: Nothing wrong with the tried and true (I like comfort food, too). But even HARRY was "different," with its hopping through time, its "couple interview" bits, its very specific thematic bent ("can a man and a woman be friends?") and an execution of "the norm" that not too many rom-com writers have matched since... thus making it actually a classic, and not obligatory in the least.

Lis: I know!!!

[download movies]

To honest i liked the movie, it was light and catchy with nice dresses :). Me and my girlfriend watched it on the weekend and had a great time.