Film Review: Marry Me basks in the glow of Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson’s warm chemistry

Posted on February 10, 2022

Previous to Jennifer Lopez changing into the worldwide icon she’s thought-about right this moment, her path as an actress was one which oft travelled in instructions not anticipated. Positive, now we align her with romantic comedies equivalent to The Wedding ceremony Planner, Maid In Manhattan and Second Act, however some 20-odd years in the past, earlier than she was synonymous with that Versace gown and adopted the “J.Lo” moniker for her burgeoning music profession, she was somebody unafraid to take dangers with the roles she selected.

From the comedic criminality of a Soderbergh image (1998’s Out of Sight), to the skewered visible acrobatics of a disturbed serial killer thriller (2000’s The Cell), Lopez was thrilling within the selections she made, which might be why her daring, Oscar-robbed flip in 2019’s Hustlers felt all of the extra revolutionary. We’re so used to seeing her within the fluffy comedies, the flicks that don’t problem her as an actress or us as viewers that we neglect what she’s able to. That being mentioned, as a lot as it’s a disgrace that a lot of her profession is constructed on these fluffy movies, they’re additionally, paradoxically, the place she effortlessly soars and the place audiences really feel essentially the most comfy in embracing her.

Adopting a breezy, undemanding mentality that leans into the simplicity of the 1990’s romantic comedy, Marry Me is the most recent Lopez laugher that makes an attempt to humanise the impossibly stunning star, this time by taking up an virtually autobiographical temperament in its narrative. On no account is Kat Coiro‘s movie meant to be seen as one thing true to Lopez’s life, however the script – a three-way collaboration between John Rogers (Transformers), Tami Sagher (TV’s Inside Amy Schumer), and Harper Dill (TV’s The Mindy Mission), primarily based off Bobby Crosby‘s graphic novel – at the least has enjoyable together with her penchant for marriages and high-profile relationships.

As pop singer Kat Valdez, Lopez is treading acquainted water. She’s a social media product, a mogul, the kind of particular person whose each transfer and sponsored product is streamed and posted for her thousands and thousands of followers to lap up. In that regard the road of the place Lopez ends and Kat begins is blurred, a sense additional prolonged to after we meet Kat’s beau Bastian (Colombian singer-songwriter Maluma), an equally adored performer whose eyes and fingers evidently aren’t locked on Kat, regardless of their impending nuptials.

You see, not solely are Kat and Bastian intending on getting married, however they’re doing so on the most recent leg of their tour – they also have a poppy duet, appropriately titled “Marry Me”, to assist set the tone. Studying of Bastian’s infidelity solely moments earlier than taking the stage in her bridal get-up, Kat decides to alter her narrative as she laments that being in love with Bastian was a assemble that maybe wasn’t as robust as the concept of being in love with him. She throws warning to the wind, and opting to not let her robe go to waste, or the on-hand officiary, she marries Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson, all sweetness and unassuming attraction), a stranger within the crowd whose holding of a “Marry Me” written signal catches her eye.

It’s utterly outlandish and faraway from actuality, however the very material of the romantic comedy is to supply escapism, and, by some means, Lopez and Wilson make it completely work. Charlie’s presence on the live performance is by pure coincidence, a last-minute invite for himself and his daughter, Lou (Chloe Coleman), from his buddy Parker (a scene-stealing Sarah Silverman) when her girlfriend of 17 days abruptly dumps her. As we be taught, Charlie’s life as an in-bed-by 8pm single father and math trainer is worlds away from Kat’s always scheduled existence, and although everyone seems to be stunned by each her public announcement and his settlement to it, they consider in following via on such lunacy. We, in fact, are all too conscious that their particular person structured existence will profit from one another’s outdoors view; she indicators him up for the varied social media purposes with the intention to loosen him up, he counteracts by difficult her to go about her day free from assistants and outdoors assist.

Over the course of the movie’s 112 minutes Marry Me by no means deviates off the trail you count on, however, to its profit, it by no means pretends it’s a product hoping to reinvent the wheel. It embraces the clichés of the style. It basks within the fantasy aspect that so many romantic comedies toy with, while sustaining a way of grounded realism; mainly a mirroring of Lopez’s lavish persona being centred by Wilson’s relatability.

Appreciators of the style and followers of Lopez’s usually ought to warmly reply to the cuteness of such a movie – it additionally helps the latter crowd that the soundtrack is basically an prolonged play of pop earworms from herself and Maluma (I dare you to not singalong to the likes of their duet “Marry Me” or her hovering solo effort “On My Approach”) – with it hitting each beat you count on, however managing to remain afloat regardless of such assumption.