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DVD retrospective: Katherine Heigl
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One of this weekend's moderate box office successes was the Katherine Heigl-Gerard Butler leaded romantic comedy The Ugly Truth. The film debuted at number three with a respectable twenty-seven million dollar debut. So for all those fans and people who have not priorly seen (because certainly some people were going to this movie for Butler and not) the outspoken actress; here are four of her previous major roles that can be found on DVD.
Roswell: Based on the popular children's series of the same name by Melinda Metz, the show followed high school student Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby) as she was saved from death by fellow student and resident alien Max (Jason Behr). As Liz and Max's relationship develops Liz's best friends Alex and Maria (Colin Hanks and Majandra Delfino) are dragged in to help protect Max and his alien family Isabel and Michael (Heigl and Brendan Fehr) from the FBI and being outed for their abilities. The show deviated significantly from the source material, but developed a unique blend of comedy, drama, and mythology. While Appleby and Behr received the most screentime, the other four core cast members each got their moment to endear audiences and develop their characters. The first two seasons struggled to find a balance between the romantic storylines and the more science fiction elements of the story, but this was finally achieved by the excellent and unfortunately final/third season.
Grade: B+
Grey's Anatomy: This was without a doubt Heigl's major breakthrough and why she won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actresss two years ago. While the show is centered on narrator and show namesake Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the show encompasses all those that she works with during her residency at Seattle Grace Hospital. A core relationship that she builds is with her best friends Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Dr. Isobel Stevens (Heigl), and Dr. George O'Malley (TR Knight). The drama is fast, witty, and has plenty of outrageous medical dramas. The show has enjoyed critical and popular success, but it has seen more than a few disappointing moments (including plenty of drama amongst the cast). It's a show not to miss at times, and actually funnier the second time around.
Grade: B+
Knocked Up: This is Judd Apatow's second effort as a writer-director after the hysterical 40 Year-old Virgin. The movie follows a hapless and loveable geek named Ben (Seth Rogen) who has a drunken one-night stand with a television news producer named Alison (Heigl). A month later Alison reappears in his life to inform Ben that she is pregnant, and the young newly-minted couple are going to keep their new surprise. The rest of the film follows them as they prepare for the birth (which is rather graphically displayed), meet each other's families (his includes the brilliant and touching Harold Ramis and she gets the formidable trio of Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd. and Joanna Kerns), work to develop a relationship, and contend with Ben's roommates/business partners (Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, and Martin Starr). The film is slow, but has more than a few laugh-out-loud moments that make up for the slow-burn development. There is also a legitimate reason that Heigl criticized Apatow's marginalization of women in his films. Even if this movie could be categorized as a romantic comedy; the majority of the humor is male-centered and features little female character development. This could be viewed as refreshing to some fans of the genre, but it could be a bit confusing for those unfamiliar with Apatow's style.
Grade: B
27 Dresses: This January 2008 romantic comedy was Heigl's first major success based on her own name. The plot follows a plain girl named Jane (Heigl) who is in love with her boss (Edward Burns), and is dragged into helping arrange his wedding when her sister (Malin Akerman) swoops in on a visit to steal the man's affections in record time. The only part of the scenario Jane seems comfortable with is acting as wedding planner because Jane has already acted as a matron of honor for twenty-seven other weddings. Her love of this ceremony raises the eyebrow and awareness of an up and coming newspaper writer named Kevin (James Marsden) who pretends to be covering the wedding, when actually writing an expose about Jane's love affair with everyone else's vows. For the genre, this movie is rather above-par. The concept is fairly complex, and provides for a few interesting jokes and debates about weddings and bridal parties. First-time director Anne Fletcher provides interesting visuals, gets envigorated performances from the cast, and keeps the movie at a crisp pace. The main complaints about the movie would be about an ill-conceived impromptu musical number, and the fact that Heigl is seen in such a good light because she is able to react well to her bouyant co-stars (particularly Marsden) rather than based on her own performance abilities.
Grade: B+
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