Katherine Heigl's Jane is the eternal bridesmaid, part little-girl dreamer mooning over the idea of a wedding, part Jane Austen heroine sublimating her dreams to make them come true for every acquaintance in her circle.

When her self-absorbed, spoiled fashion-model sister Tess (Malin Akerman) swoops in and steals away her boss (Edward Burns), the man Jane secretly loves, she isn't merely stuck planning their dream wedding. The entire effort is dropped in her lap by the Tess without a thought.

Of course, her real match is smart-aleck cynic Kevin (James Marsden), a reporter with a knack for spinning his wedding coverage into fairy tales in the paper and then mocking the whole ceremony in conversation. It's loathe at first meeting. They are made for each other.

The film doesn't miss a beat in setting up all the complications and setbacks we know are going to be toppled like tenpins in a perfect strike. Anne Fletcher, a dancer/choreographer turned director, moves the film along smoothly, hitting the marks and timing the jokes right. It's connect-the-dots filmmaking by a talented tracer.

The movie is like Jane's perfect wedding: it delivers everything you expect on a timetable you can predict to the minute. It's filmmaking as a cross between a carefully choreographed dance and an elaborate pageant, where we all agree to pass off Heigl, the dream girl of "Grey's Anatomy," as the plain sister.

But it's that comforting inevitability that people seem to like in their romantic comedies, at least the gushy girlie ones like "27 Dresses," where meeting cute men, fashion spotting and teary bouts of confession are part of the show you pay to see ~ Phil Brookes (Entertainment Tonight)