27 Dresses (PG-13) ***

27 Dresses provides Katherine Heigl with a chance to flex her comedic muscles.

Jane (Katherine Heigl) revels in her impromptu modeling session of the Bahama Mama dress.

Member rating: 2

By Connie Ogle

Even with a big fake belly, Katherine Heigl had to play second fiddle to the numerous unruly manchildren of Knocked Up and their bong-hugging, pink-eyed shenanigans. But the romantic comedy 27 Dresses provides her with a chance to flex her comedic muscles, and her whip-smart delivery and timing are an indication that we may at last have a worthy heroine for the otherwise shaky future of romcom.

Anybody is better than Drew Barrymore, to be fair -- I can't imagine a worse excuse for a movie than Music & Lyrics. (Oh, wait: Because I Said So or the grammatically challenged Two Weeks Notice would definitely be contenders.) But Heigl is a pleasant surprise, a revelation, even, as dependable Jane, an otherwise sane individual who has taken bridesmaidhood to a new and scary level.

Sprinting between two weddings on the same night, she catches the eye of cynical Kevin (James Marsden), who writes the ''commitments'' column for the local New York newspaper. He decides a story about Jane's obsession -- which, he suspects, protects her from dealing with her stalled love life -- will free him from his satin-and-lace ghetto. Kevin gets the access he needs when Jane's sister (Malin Akerman) gets engaged to Jane's boss (Edward Burns) and wants to be featured in his column.

Jane, though, is less enthused about this wedding. She's not-so-secretly in love with her boss, even though it's been a good long time since Ed Burns was anybody's dreamboat.

27 Dresses is, of course, mostly silly and always frothy, as sugary at times as wedding-cake frosting but tempered with a welcome strain of sour grapes, mostly doled out by the peerless Judy Greer as Jane's cynical, slutty best friend. Marsden turns out to be a game, even funny romantic foil for Heigl; he should have taken off those ridiculous X-Men glasses and tried his hand at leading mandom a long time ago.

The film's humor alternates between the obvious and the sly, but even the obvious stuff is pretty amusing. Any bridesmaid who has ever had to cram herself into an organdy nightmare -- or, God forbid, a costume for a themed wedding -- can appreciate the montage of Jane giggling and showing off her gowns. IMDB.com reports that the first set of dresses had to be scrapped; they didn't make Heigl look awful enough. (The time-honored trick of throwing on some brunette highlights didn't work, either.) Making the gorgeous Heigl appear unattractive is a tall order; she'd look great even if she dipped into Bjork's closet. 27 Dresses doesn't quite manage that feat. What it does do, though, is provide a giddy, good time.