Ok, let’s get one thing straight from the start – 27 Dresses is pure chick flick territory, so boys, you may want to stay well clear (unless you have a thing for Katherine Heigl that is).

Written by Aline Brosh McKenna, the woman behind the “The Devil Wears Prada” screenplay, 27 Dresses tells the story of ‘super bridesmaid’ Jane (Heigl), a hopelessly idealistic and romantic young woman who identifies herself purely through the happiness of others and ends up playing a secondary character in her own life. 27 weddings later Jane’s gorgeous but flighty younger sister Tess turns up on her doorstep and, in what seems like a nano-second, promptly ends up getting engaged to Jane’s boss George (Edward Burns). So far so good, only that Jane has secretly been in love with her boss for years, and now suddenly finds herself organising his wedding to her sister. Her once perfectly-organised life thus starts to unravel, helped along by cocky journalist Kevin (James Marsden), a charming newspaper reporter who realises that a story about this wedding junkie may be his ticket off the newspaper’s bridal beat.

It is all perfectly predictable from there onwards of course, and 27 Dresses ticks pretty much all the clichés of your average Hollywood rom com. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however trying to sell Katherine Heigl as the ugly duckling proves to be an impossible task. The thought that someone as beach babe gorgeous as her could end up as the perennial bridesmaid seems ludicrous, and not even the in-your-face attempt of de-beautifying her by calling her Jane (not your average plain Jane really) and dying her hair a mousy brown alter the fact that, in real life, her boss would be falling at her feet. The same goes for Marsden of course – at first Jane apparently doesn’t notice that the guy looks as if he had just stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad campaign, and seems more concerned with the fact that he is averse to the concept of marriage. As if.

And this is where the real problem lies – the notion of marriage still being every woman’s ultimate ambition simply doesn’t seem to be in tune with today’s zeitgeist.

It is lucky then that Heigl is an immensely likeable actress whose impeccable comic timing easily carries the film through its rough patches and stops it from descending into complete slushiness. She gets to shine in what turns out to be an often funny and sometimes even hilarious film.

27 Dresses is as sugary-sweet as a triple-choc milkshake with whipped cream and a Morello cherry on top, and has just the same effect: slightly sickening and guilt-inducing, yet strangely irresistible. My advice? Indulge.