27 Dresses (PG-13) ***: This romantic comedy about a semi-professional bridesmaid who neglects her own love life provides Katherine Heigl (''Knocked Up'') with a chance to flex her comedic muscles, and her whip-smart delivery and timing are an indication that we may at last have a worthy heroine for the otherwise shaky future of rom-com. Heigl's foil, James Marsden, acquits himself well, too; he should've taken off those Cyclops glasses years ago. ''27 Dresses'' is, of course, mostly silly and always frothy, as sugary at times as wedding-cake frosting. But it's tempered with a welcome strain of sour grapes, mostly doled out by the peerless Judy Greer as Jane's cynical, slutty best friend. -- Ogle (language, some innuendo, sexuality) 107 minutes.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (R) ****: The most astonishing, poetic and powerful film of the season, director Julian Schnabel's drama is essential viewing, not just for the deeply humanist principles that drive it but for the sublime proof it provides of cinema's abiding artistic relevance. Based on the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (played by Mathias Amalric), the stylish, high-living editor of French Elle, who suffered a stroke at 43, lost his power of speech and was left able to move only his left eyelid, what could have been a portrait of impotence and suffering becomes a soaring ode to beauty, memory, imagination and spiritual liberation. -- Herald wire services (vulgar language, nudity, adult themes). In French with English subtitles. 112 minutes.
The Golden Compass (PG-13) **: Mega-budget, star-studded adaptation of the first volume in Philip Pullman's beloved ''His Dark Materials'' trilogy is a handsomely rendered, uninvolving fantasy that spreads itself too thinly, never giving the audience an emotional entry point into its complex story. A noble directing effort by Chris Weitz (''American Pie,'' ''About a Boy'') results in lots of lovely images that never coalesce into a vibrant adventure. Instead, it's just one thing after another, with a 12-year-old girl (newcomer Dakota Blue Richards) thrust into a world of parallel universes, magic and talking polar bears that exhausts instead of enchanting. Only Nicole Kidman, in a wonderfully evil turn as a potentially villainous guardian, manages to break through the film's artificial surface. -- Rodriguez (brief fantasy violence). 117 minutes.
