Line #46 Film/TwentySevenDresses


1	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/27-dresses-poster-resize.JPG]]
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3	''27 Dresses'' is a RomanticComedy, released in 2008, starring Creator/KatherineHeigl and Creator/JamesMarsden.
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5	The story follows Jane Nichols (Heigl), a young single woman who's in love with her boss George (Creator/EdwardBurns) but [[CannotSpitItOut doesn't have the courage to tell him]]. A notorious doormat, she has been a bridesmaid in 27 different weddings, usually shouldering much of the responsibility for planning the weddings as well. We're introduced to Jane the same night she meets Kevin Doyle (Marsden), a cynical young man who covers weddings for the local paper (though Jane is unaware of this). He's intrigued by the fact that she seems to be in two different weddings on the same night. Through a bizarre set of circumstances, the two share a taxi ride home, and Jane accidentally leaves her day planner behind. Kevin finds it and discovers her bridesmaid duties are a regular phenomenon.
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7	Soon after, Jane's spoiled and vain younger sister Tess (Malin Akerman), comes home to visit. She [[BoyMeetsGirl meets George and falls in love with him]], in spite of the fact that they are complete opposites. Tess continually lies to George to convince him that they're soulmates, much to Jane's dismay. Meanwhile, Kevin has been using Jane's calendar to find her and continually hound her for a date. Unfortunately, he's got an ulterior motive: he is planning to write a story on the "perpetual bridesmaid", a piece that he believes will further his career.
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9	After a very short courtship, George proposes to Tess, who of course assumes that Jane will plan everything for their wedding to be held in several weeks. Jane's emotional state deteriorates rapidly, while Tess's diva behavior increases dramatically. On top of that, Jane learns that Kevin is actually a wedding journalist who plans to cover George and Tess's wedding (although she's still unaware of the perpetual bridesmaid article he plans to write). Kevin eventually deduces that Jane is in love with George, and pushes her to stand up for herself and what she wants. At the same time he asks his editor to hold the article about Jane. He is beginning to realize that there's more to her than he first thought, and the article doesn't portray her in a flattering light. His editor says she'll hold the story, but unbeknownst to Kevin, goes back on her word and publishes it anyway.
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11	While running an errand, Jane and Kevin get stuck overnight due to weather, and realize they have feelings for each other, [[RelationshipUpgrade which they act on]]. But the following morning, Jane sees the article. She's understandably humiliated, and leaves him. Tess is furious with her for allowing herself to be manipulated, which furthers her depression. But when Jane finds out that Tess has cut up their mother's wedding dress (which she had planned to wear to her own wedding), she comes to her senses and realizes that George needs to know the truth. At the rehearsal dinner that night, Jane gives Tess one more chance to come clean. She refuses, so Jane proceeds to humiliate Tess during her speech with a slideshow that vividly demonstrates the lies Tess has fed George. The wedding is called off.
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13	Eventually the girls' father forces them to see each other and work out their differences. Tess learns that she needs to be less selfish and more compassionate before she deserves a guy like George. Jane realizes that Kevin was right, and she needs to learn to take care of others without completely ignoring herself. Later that evening George invites Jane to a charity event, as he needs a date. She meets him at the office, where she finally confesses her feelings for him. He kisses her, but they both realize they have zero chemistry. Jane realizes Kevin is actually the right guy for her, and she ends up with him instead.
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15	----
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17	!!This film shows examples of the following tropes:
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19	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: After Jane reveals the truth about Tess at the rehearsal dinner and destroys the wedding, Casey, of all people, approaches her and asks why she did it. Jane tries to defend herself by saying that [[IDidWhatIHadToDo someone had to reveal the truth]], but Casey points out that all Jane ''really'' did was vent every bit of frustration she's ever felt all at once in a public setting, and that if she had done the right thing, she would feel better. Then comes the question: "Do you feel better?" The answer is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone a very hard "no."]]
20	* AtomicFBomb: Jane becomes so pissed off about the fact that Kevin sent her flowers instead of George that she leaves the party temporarily to scream one in the hallway.
21	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Jane couples George's with a "quitting my job" speech, then gives [[spoiler:Kevin a real one minutes later.]]
22	* BackseatChangingRoom: The opening sees Jane hiring a cab for the whole night to shuttle between the two weddings she's bridesmaiding for on the same night. She tells the cabbie she'll dock his fare for every time he looks, and at the end of the night, she hands him less money than expected and says, "You know what you did." He nods as if that's fair.
23	* BaitAndSwitch: When it flashes forward to the present day, it shows Jane trying on a wedding dress and we're led to believe it's for her wedding day. However she gets a call and the camera pans out, showing she's actually being a wedding planner and bridesmaid and she was helping a friend find a dress that fits.
24	* BigApplesauce: Set in New York, with the wedding to be held in Central Park.
25	* BitterWeddingSpeech: Tess tasks Jane with giving her a maid of honor speech at the rehearsal dinner, complete with a slideshow. Though Jane ''does'' recite the speech that Tess wrote for her, she does so in an extremely sarcastic way, and pairs it with pictures that reveal all of the lies that Tess has been telling to win George over; it ends with the engagement being broken and the wedding called off.
26	* BitchSlap: Jane gives one to Kevin after she finds out about the article.
27	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Tess, Jane and Casey respectively. Each with typically associated personalities.
28	* BouquetToss: One of these gone wrong is how Kevin and Jane meet.
29	* {{Bridezilla}}: Tess. Oh God, Tess. It even gets mentioned by name in the article Kevin writes.
30	--> '''Tess''': Someone alert sky traffic because Bridezilla is on the loose!
31	* BrilliantButLazy: Casey. She's a free-spirited and lazy HardDrinkingPartyGirl who ReallyGetsAround, and yet in an easily-missed line, it's revealed that she's an ''accountant''.
32	* BrokenPedestal: Jane is horrified to learn that the deeply cynical Kevin (using a pen name) is the one who writes the wedding articles she reads.
33	-->'''Jane:''' I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich...
34	* BuxomBeautyStandard: Jane mentions an aunt used to [[ACupAngst joke about Jane having small breasts]], which seems ridiculous now. What's even stranger is that it's Tess that brings this up, even though Jane is significantly bigger than her.
35	* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: Part of Jane's speech to [[spoiler:Kevin]].
36	* CaughtInTheRain: This is exactly how Jane and Kevin first hook up.
37	* ConsummateLiar: Tess continuously lies and bullshits George about being a healthy-living, outdoorsy girl, much to Jane's chagrin. Naturally, this blows up in her face.
38	* CynicismCatalyst: Kevin's cynicism regarding weddings is because [[spoiler:he had his big fancy wedding planned, but then his bride left him for his roommate]].
39	* DeadpanSnarker: Kevin.
40	** Also Jane.
41	--> '''Jane''': Do you also go around telling small children that Santa Claus doesn't exist? 'Cause someone needs to blow that shit wide open.
42	* DefrostingIceQueen: A gender-flipped version with Kevin. He's given up on the whole idea of weddings (see CynicismCatalyst above) and spends the first third of the movie either making fun of Jane or secretly plotting to exploit her story for a major article. However, as time passes and he discovers how much Jane loves weddings, he slowly starts to fall for her and remember his own passions.
43	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Tess consistently lies to George, pretending to be a person she clearly isn't. This works in the short term when they barely know each other, but what did she expect was going to happen ''after'' they were married? She probably wouldn't have been able to constantly keep the act up [[spoiler:even if Jane hadn't exposed her lies; if anything, Jane simply sped up the reveal and the marriage failing]].
44	* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Everyone knows how Jane feels about George. Except George, who's completely ObliviousToLove, and Tess, who never picks up on it.
45	* ExactWords: Tess, in full Bridezilla mode, writes the maid of honor speech she wants Jane to give at the rehearsal dinner for her, and tells her not to change a word. Sure enough, Jane delivers the exact speech that Tess wrote...but she pairs the lines with embarrassing photographs and reads the whole thing in a mocking way, which makes Tess look like a liar and complete fool.
46	* ExtremeDoormat: Jane, of course.
47	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Jane is the elder, responsible sister and her younger sister Tess is Foolish.
48	* FourthDateMarriage: Tess and George go from dating to engaged to wedding in an alarmingly short time.
49	** Jane and [[spoiler: Kevin]] are a subverted example. They marry a year after they get engaged.
50	* FreudianExcuse: When Jane was a child, her cousin was in a panic because something went wrong with her wedding dress just before she had to walk down the aisle. Little Jane devised a solution, and her cousin not only praised her effusively, but even called her the wedding's hero. Jane herself explains that this was the moment that she realized she had a knack for wedding planning, and that she loved the joy her help could bring to others.
51	* GentlemanAdventurer: George is a well-done modern version of this.
52	* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: PlayedForLaughs when Casey sees Jane is distractedly mooning over George and she slaps her across the face to bring some sense back into her.
53	* GiantPoofySleeves: Many of Jane's dresses have giant pouffy sleeves, like the southern belle dress and teal dress.
54	* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Jane's PromotionToParent averted this when they were young, but said war is declared and played straight during the movie's events.
55	* HateSink: It is really, ''really'' hard not to completely hate Tess by the end of things. She's a spoiled brat who does not care about anything substantial, though it is at least suggested she sincerely likes George, but her behavior is reprehensible. She lies about every single thing about herself so he'll like her, fall in love, and marry her. She convinces his ward to do the cooking and cleaning so George won't find out she can't cook and clean. She expects Jane to plan her entire wedding without being paid for it and to get it done in ''only three weeks.'' She is fully aware that Jane had a dream wedding of getting married where their parents were married and wearing her mother's dress, then thinks it's fine to [[spoiler: ''cut up their mother's wedding dress'' and use ''scraps'' of it for her own wedding.]] There is no excuse for that level of selfishness and there is no excuse for her being fine with lying to George throughout the entire relationship and if Jane hadn't [[spoiler: told George the truth]], Tess would have ''kept'' lying to George. The movie frames Jane [[spoiler: humiliating Tess in front of their family and friends]] as a bad thing, but honestly, Jane gave Tess every single chance to do the right thing and Tess chose not to do it. Tess' humiliation was fully earned by this point and she still doesn't even seem all that sorry for what's she's done by the end of things.
56	* HereditaryWeddingDress: Jane snaps after her sister Tess cuts up their deceased mother's wedding dress (that Jane had been planning on wearing when she eventually got married) to make it more "modern" for her own wedding. It makes her reach a RageBreakingPoint and give Tess a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
57	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: George. Big time. He swallows every single lie that Tess tells him without question, so unfortunately he gets a ''very'' rude awakening when Jane puts together a slideshow that demonstrates just how much lying Tess has done since she met him. He is rightfully angry and becomes truly furious when he finds out she asked Pedro to do all the cooking and cleaning for them since she can't be bothered to do it herself. It's a wonder he's able to smile at her [[spoiler: at the very end after all she put him and Pedro through, but it also shows what a NiceGuy he is that he eventually forgives her.]]
58	* HumiliationConga: The speech and slideshow Jane delivers at Tess and George's rehearsal dinner is one that Jane herself deliberately sets up for Tess: the pictures are not only extremely unflattering, they reveal all of the lies that Tess has told to win George over, ''in front of an entire hall full of people.''
59	* {{Goth}}: Gina, the secretary at Jane and Casey's job. Even her wedding is gothic.
60	* IHaveNoSon: A sibling example. After Jane discovers that Tess had [[spoiler:cut up their mother's wedding dress to make more appealing]], Jane tells her she's not her sister anymore for what she done and storms out.
61	--> '''Tess''': You wouldn't hurt me. I'm your sister!
62	--> '''Jane''': That was yesterday. Today you're just some bitch who broke my heart [[spoiler:and cut up my mother's wedding dress]]!
63	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Jane's justification for publicly humiliating Tess. It's clear that even she doesn't buy this explanation and realizes there were other methods to achieve her goal.
64	* IGaveMyWord: Jane claims that all twenty-seven of the brides she's helped over the years have promised to appear in her own wedding when the time comes...and sure enough, the final shot of the movie (when Jane is marrying [[spoiler: Kevin]]) reveals ''every single one'' standing on a specially-built platform, each wearing the outfit that Jane herself wore in the corresponding ceremony.
65	* IMissMom[=/=]MissingMom: Even though they were quite young when their mother passed away (Jane was eight and Tess was several years younger), her loss is implied to be a huge factor in Jane's personality, a cause of sadness in the family (especially for their father), and a significant contributor to several plot points.
66	* InnocentlyInsensitive: While the innocent part is debateable, Tess genuinely doesn't seem to realize or care that her actions are putting Jane under a lot of emotional duress. She also seemingly remains unaware of her sister's feelings for George.
67	* ItsAllAboutMe: Tess, especially when she becomes engaged to George and asks Jane for help on the wedding planning. Extra points for later making the article fiasco all about herself, this despite apparently only ever getting a one sentence mention whereas Jane gets details from her personal life spread all over the front page of the newspaper.
68	* ItsAllJunk: After Jane decides to stop being such a doormat and wasting her life waiting for George, she throws out all twenty-seven of the outfits she's gathered over the years, in a metaphor for cleansing her life of her old habits.
69	* KaraokeBondingScene: Variation where it's not technically karaoke (rather, a singalong that the main characters lead a dive bar in). Jane and Kevin, initially at odds, belt out "Bennie and the Jets" at said dive bar and become closer to each other.
70	* KimonoIsTraditional: One of Jane's bridesmaids dresses is a purple kimono that she wore at traditional Japanese wedding.
71	* LaserGuidedKarma: Tess earns herself two kinds of Laser Guided Karma thanks to her selfish, thoughtless behavior. First, the article that Kevin ends up writing about Jane does not skimp on telling everyone what a horrid bridezilla that Tess was the entire time he was writing the article. She flips out at Jane after finding out about it and doesn't offer even [[JerkAss an iota of comfort]] to her knowing Kevin wrote an article about her life without her full permission. Second, Jane tells Tess to tell George the truth, but she refuses, so Jane then [[spoiler: puts together a photo montage that proves all the lies Tess has told George to get him to like and marry her. Again, while the movie portrays it as a bad thing that Jane did, Jane gave Tess every chance to do the right thing and she didn't do it, so she was humiliated instead.]]
72	* LoveTriangle: Between Jane, George and Tess. George has no idea that Jane is in love with him and simply thinks she's the world's best employee. It comes to a head [[spoiler: after George breaks the engagement after learning about all of Tess' lies and Jane admits to her crush, but then when they kiss, they realize there is NoSpark and they agree to remain friends. Jane also quits, as she's now realized that she no longer wants to be an ExtremeDoormat to George, Tess, or anyone else ever again.]]
73	* MaybeEverAfter: At Jane's wedding, [[spoiler: Tess approaches George and reintroduces herself, and he smiles and asks her to sit next to him, implying that they may get back together after all.]]
74	* MeaningfulName: Jane is supposed to be your typical "plain Jane" type. It's a bit hard to swallow that you're supposed to find [[StatuesqueStunner Katherine Heigl]] ''less'' attractive than Malin Akerman, though.
75	* AMinorKidroduction: The movie starts with Jane and Tess at their first wedding as kids. They see the bride in the bathroom with her dress ripped, so Jane takes Tess's hair ribbon to fix it. The bride then asks Jane to hold her train, showing the first time with her fate as a bridesmaid.
76	* MomentKiller: Kevin. Jane's overreaction is what makes him realize she has feelings for George.
77	* MondegreenGag: Occurs after Kevin and Jane get wasted in a bar and both demonstrate that they have no idea what the real lyrics are to "[[Music/EltonJohn Bennie and the Jets]]". But that doesn't stop them from singing and dancing to it anyway.
78	* MoodWhiplash: A gradual variation. Jane's slideshow for Tess and George at the rehearsal dinner starts out as a laughable show of how different the two may be (young George loving animals while young Tess flippantly holds a cat upside down). But as it progresses, it becomes more and more clear this is a [[SarcasmMode passive aggressive]] way of exposing how [[LiarRevealed dishonest]] Tess has been to George about who she is. And the laughter simply [[DudeNotFunny dries up]].
79	* NeverTrustATitle: A very, very minor example. Technically speaking, Jane ''didn't'' wear twenty-seven dresses in twenty-seven weddings...for one, the men apparently wore dresses and the women wore ''tuxes.'' The bride in question is among the twenty-seven in the end, and sure enough, she's wearing a tux; the tux is also shown in Jane's montage of trying on her collection of wedding outfits. It's a minor point, though, and let's face it, "26 Dresses and 1 Tuxedo" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
80	* NoSparks: Jane and [[spoiler:George]]. They share a kiss twice, then realize the chemistry simply isn't there.
81	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Once Jane's finished showing the humiliating slideshow of Tess at the rehearsal dinner and giving a mocking speech that exposes all of the lies Tess has told, Casey approaches and tells her that even ''she'' thinks this was wrong. It's even lampshaded: Casey points out that her "moral compass doesn't exactly point north," [[EverybodyHasStandards so if she has a problem with Jane's actions, they must be bad.]]
82	* PairTheSpares: Jane's loose friend Casey and Kevin's girl-crazy co-worker Trent are implied to hook up at the end.
83	* PimpedOutDress: Some of Jane's bridesmaid gowns, a few of them pimped to [[ImpossiblyTackyClothes truly epic/horrific proportions]].
84	* PluckyComicRelief: Casey. She does give Jane some much needed advice more than once in the story, though.
85	* PromotionToParent: Jane.
86	* RaceForYourLove: Jane uses a taxi and jumps a boat ramp in high heels during her race [[spoiler:to get to Kevin]] at the end of the movie.
87	* RageBreakingPoint: Jane's personality and upbringing are the reasons she can stay so calm throughout the whole movie, even when she's grinding her teeth to respond, but when [[spoiler:she finds out that Tess cut up their deceased mother's wedding dress to make it more "modern"]], she finally [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech cracks]].
88	* ReallyGetsAround: Casey, unashamedly so.
89	** It's also implied of Tess before meeting George.
90	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: After having to endure Tess lying to George to win him over and her constant demands for their upcoming wedding, Jane finally [[RageBreakingPoint snaps]] after Tess has the audacity to [[spoiler:cut up their deceased mother's wedding dress (that Jane had been planning on wearing when she eventually got married) to make it more "modern".]] After chewing her out, Jane gives Tess an ultimatum.
91	-->'''Jane:''' God, you don't care! You don't care about anyone but yourself, do you? I have made excuses for you because Mom died when you were little, but enough is enough!\
92	'''Tess:''' I have no idea what you're talking about.\
93	'''Jane:''' I can't undo what you’ve just done, but I won't let you hurt George. He thinks he knows the truth about you, but all he knows are the lies you've told him! You even had ''Pedro'' keep a secret from George! You tell him the truth right now! He is not one of your Euro-trash boyfriends, Tess, he is a good person. And you cannot start a relationship based on ''lies''!\
94	'''Tess:''' Oh really, Jane? And you know this because of all ''your'' successful relationships?\
95	'''Jane:''' ...You tell him the truth, or I will.\
96	'''Tess:''' No, you won't. You wouldn't hurt a fly and you definitely wouldn't hurt me, I'm your sister.\
97	'''Jane:''' That was yesterday. Today you're just some bitch who broke my heart [[spoiler:and cut up my mother's wedding dress.]]
98	* SexyShirtSwitch: Subdued example. Casey shows up to work on Monday in a borrowed groomsman's outfit, pointing out that she can't wear her bridesmaid's dress to work after a two day walk of shame.
99	* SiblingTriangle: Both Jane and her sister Tess are attracted to George and it only gets worse when Tess gets engaged to him. Lampshades by Kevin in a complaint.
100	* SiblingYinYang: Jane is smart, responsible, and selfless, while Tess is irresponsible, selfish, and carefree.
101	* StalkerWithACrush: Downplayed with Kevin.
102	* Stereotype: Invoked in-universe by Jane. George mentors a Latino boy named Pedro through Big Brothers Big Sisters, and at one point, Tess pays him to clean her apartment for her. During the speech/slideshow at the rehearsal dinner, Jane uses the information and a picture of the deed in question to deliberately suggest that Tess is racist for exploiting a Latino person for cleaning services.
103	* TeamMom: Jane is a deconstruction of this.
104	* TestKiss: Jane and George, after Jane finally confesses her feelings for him; [[spoiler: they mutually decide there's no spark.]]
105	* ThemedWedding: As Jane showcases her many bridesmaid dresses to Kevin, one of them comes with a parasol. Jane explains that it was for a themed wedding.
106	-->'''Kevin:''' No, people do not have ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' weddings.\
107	'''Jane:''' I've been to ''three''.
108	* UniqueMomentRuined: A variation, in that the special moment's ruin comes long before the event itself can take place. After having been a bridesmaid at 27 different weddings, Jane has been planning to wear her late mother's wedding dress when she finally has her own wedding...only to discover that her sister Tess, whose wedding she's also planning, cut up the dress to make it more "modern." With the stress of planning the wedding, having to deal with Tess's {{Bridezilla}} tendencies, the fact that Tess is marrying Jane's boss and love interest George (and is telling him all sorts of lies to convince him they are soulmates), and having just found out that her other love interest Kevin has written an unflattering newspaper article about her perpetual bridesmaid duties, finding out about the dress proves to be [[RageBreakingPoint more than Jane can take]].
109	--> '''Jane:''' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech God, you don't care! You don't care about anyone but yourself, do you?]]
110	* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: At first Kevin is interested in Jane but she rejects him because she loves George. After a falling out with Kevin and realizing she has no sparks with George, she realizes that she has feelings for Kevin and tracks him down to tell him how she feels.
111	* VillainBall:
112	** Tess weaves an elaborate web of lies to make George believe that she's a healthy-living, outdoorsy animal loving domestic goddess. This works while they're dating and engaged, but what were her plans for ''after'' the wedding? Either she aims to change her lifestyle (which seems quite unlikely, since she'd constantly be doing things she hates) or to continue lying to George, which is ''bound'' to blow up in her face sooner or later.
113	** Held by Kevin's editor, of all people. After Kevin [[HeelRealization begins to realize that he's treated Jane badly]] in his "perpetual bridesmaid" article, he calls his editor and asks her to hold the piece for a week. She agrees... then goes behind his back and runs the story anyway. Absolutely no justification is ever given for this; as someone on the Headscratchers page points out, the entire thing ends up feeling like a highly-contrived way to create tension between Kevin and Jane. Furthermore--and also appearing on the Headscratchers page-- publishing a story when an author has specifically requested it not appear opens the paper up to a big libel suit, something any editor worth their salt would know.
114	* WasItAllALie: Jane asks Kevin this after she sees his article about her. She doesn't believe him when he says "no".
115	* WhatTheHellHero: Casey calls out Jane on publicly taking revenge on Tess by showing the slideshow exposing her. She even asks if getting her revenge has made her satisfied.
116	** Understandably, Jane is ''furious'' when she finds out Kevin lied about the article being about Tess when it's really about her and slaps the shit out of him when she sees the article in the paper. At first, Kevin tries to make excuses, but the slap sets him straight. He later comes to the rehearsal dinner to try and be supportive, but also to make a genuine apology for what he's done.

Context Film / TwentySevenDresses