Entertainment

SHE WEARS IT WELL

NO worse and no better than the majority of chick flicks, “27 Dresses” features appealing and gorgeous Katherine Heigl as – how original! – a desperate Manhattan singleton.

Supportive of her married friends to the verge of masochism, Heigl’s Jane Nichols is trapped not only in a succession of eyeball-gougingly ugly bridesmaid dresses, but also in an ultra-formulaic romantic quadrangle with two men and her own sister.

Aline Brosh McKenna, the credited screenwriter, spun the thin novel “The Devil Wears Prada” into comic gold. But she works no such alchemy here, instead leaving no rom-com cliché unturned in her “original” script.

Jane works as an assistant to George, a personality-free clothing entrepreneur and philanthropist played by a wildly miscast Ed Burns.

George is of course oblivious that Jane has a roaring crush on him, but he quickly notices Jane’s airheaded and avaricious younger sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), when she arrives in town for an extended visit.

Before you know it, George and Tess are engaged, and the long-suffering Jane – what a surprise! – is planning their wedding at The Boathouse in Central Park.

Meanwhile, Kevin (James Marsden, better used as a second lead in “Hairspray” and “Enchanted”), a cynical wedding reporter for “the New York Journal,” is supposedly doing a piece on Tess and George’s wedding.

What a shock – he’s actually doing an exposé on Jane’s career as a perennial bridesmaid. Stop the presses!

Anyone who has seen a chick flick knows what is going to happen next, and next, and next. They won’t exactly be surprised when Jane and Kevin stop bickering long enough to lead a couple of choruses of “Bennie and the Jets” at a bar.

Tess, meanwhile, is trying to con George into believing she’s a vegetarian and a dog lover – so guess what the long-suffering Jane slips into a video at their pre-wedding dinner?

Sidekicks tend to come off best in this sort of flick, and Judy Greer makes a modest buffet of her role as Jane’s sardonic best friend.

But there just isn’t enough story here to justify a 107-minute running time, no matter how many montages debuting director Anne Fletcher whips up.

Heigl, who demonstrates her gift for physical comedy, has complained in interviews about the sexist tone of “Knocked Up.” But what happens when she teams up with a woman director and screenwriter?

You get “27 Dresses,” which delivers that great feminist message: A woman’s life is meaningless without marriage.

27 DRESSES

Something borrowed.

Running time: 107 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sexual innuendo, profanity). At the E-Walk, the Union Square, the East 86th Street.

lou.lumenick@nypost.com