Married women, I’m talking to you. Once and for all: Single women know they’re single. Single women do not need reminders that they’re single from married friends.
I shunned 27 Dresses even more vehemently that I shun other chick flick recommendations.
And then a ton of really awful stuff happened in my life and I didn’t see any movies for several months.
My condo assessment includes satellite TV. I have a bunch of movie channels. I rarely watch them. Not because I’m a movie snob. But. They do show a lot of 27 Dresses types of movies.
So. I had my first weekend home in a long time. I vowed I would do all the things I’ve been putting off since I’ve been helping my mother every weekend. The dishes piled in the sink would be washed. Groceries, real food would be procured. The pile of magazines and catalogs would be sorted and recycled. Summer clothes would be put in storage. Friday and Saturday nights would be spent on the couch with facial treatments, glasses of wine, magazines and movies.
I checked the lineup on my movie channels. There staring back at me in heavy rotation was: 27 Dresses.
I was deep into my second glass of wine, feeling lonely and down anyway, so I decided to seal the deal by watching a movie sure to make me feel emotionally worse but intellectually superior. In the comfort of my home, alone, I could talk back at the tv and make fun of how insipid and insulting the plot, dialog and acting is in the movie.
And, at any point in the movie, I could simply change the channel.
27 Dresses did not disappoint. It lived up to my expectations. In fact it exceeded them. It managed to not only make single women look like sad, desperate, emotional wrecks until they meet Mr. Right and have a wonderfully romantic wedding, it also covered the single woman as conniving, manipulative, single-minded mission to get a man liars angle, too.
Yay 27 Dresses producers, directors and actors. Applause, applause.
Yes. I have been in thirteen weddings. I have worn three really, truly laughable dresses (pink and/or butt bows and/or taffeta), six not awful but straight out of the “make the bride look stunning in comparison” school dresses, and four very nice “regular” dresses (which, yes, I have indeed worn again). Eleven of those dresses required special accoutrements, and all of them cost a lot more money than I could afford to spend on any garment, let alone a dress I didn’t need or want. Attached to those dresses were a lot of obligations. Bridal showers. Bachelorette parties. Gifts. Plane tickets. Hotel rooms. Hair appointments. Affixing a pleasant but not show stealing smile on your face and keeping it there at all times when the bride is present. Sitting at whatever table is available - usually with the groom’s bitter aunt and two of the grooms drunk fraternity buddies.
One point 27 Dresses did make was that the lead character, Jane, wasn’t bitter about “being there” for her friends. She defended her friends and claimed she had fun at their weddings. Though the flashback sequence of those “fun weddings” showed her looking like a fool, cringing with embarrassment an generally not having fun. Ahhhh. Hollywood. Flashback sequences aside, I agree with the sentiment about “being there” for friends and having fun at their weddings.
No. I didn’t have fun at all thirteen weddings. I had fun at some of them. Some of them were torturous. A couple of them have become fuzzy, distant memories. Much like the brides, my friends. Interesting how, the better the friend, the more likely it is that I had fun at, and being in, her wedding.
At the happy, obvious end of 27 Dresses (spoiler alert, not that the entire plot isn’t obvious in the preview of the movie) Jane marries the male friend who was there for her all along but she was too wrapped up being mad/jealous of the bride and/or in love with the bride’s fiancé that she never noticed her own Mr. Right was right there all along. I know! What a surprise ending! No, really, there is a surprise twist! All of the twenty-seven women for whom Jane served as a bridesmaid were bridesmaids in Jane’s wedding! But wait! I mean, this ending is just such a priceless surprise! They’re all wearing the dresses Jane wore as a bridesmaid in their weddings! She got revenge and vindication! No! I didn’t see that coming, either! So cute! So funny! So sweet! So romantic! Such a happy feel good movie.
