Cert 12A, 110 mins

The pioneers of the women’s suffrage movement would be delighted to know that, a century or so later, sure, it’s cool that we now have the vote but let’s focus, ladies – isn’t the real issue still about snaring a husband and buying into that fairytale wedding? 27 Dresses is the latest romantic comedy which posits that a woman is somehow incomplete until she has a ring on her finger and a billowing meringue of a dress.

The likeable Katherine Heigl stars as Jane Nichols, a young woman so enamoured with weddings that not only has she been a bridesmaid at 27 of them, she’s also the go-to girl for frantic brides with a seating plan disaster or a canapé crisis. But as Jane finds herself planning the wedding of her feckless younger sister to the man Jane herself secretly loves, it looks increasingly likely that she’s going to end up – gasp! – an “old maid”.

There’s a suitor for Jane on the sidelines – Kevin Doyle (James Marsden) is a newspaper reporter who covers the wedding beat. But since he’s a cynic who sneers at the ceremonies he covers and Jane is a hopeless romantic, their relationship is surely doomed. This cynical chick flick is formulaic and shallow, so no prizes for guessing how it all pans out. But the biggest problem is the uneven characterisation. The story requires an antagonist, so Jane’s sister is painted as a monster for most of the film. At the end, however, she is reshaped as Jane’s close friend and confidante. The film’s credibility crumbles like stale wedding cake.

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