February 14, 2022
“If you’re coming to the theater as a fan of Lopez’s music and abs, you’ll get a heaping dose of both. But if you want to be swept off your feet, I’d look for something with a bit more heat.”
| Brooks Eisenbise – Chicago Reader |
The web SJW movements have also played part in the past 20 years in dampening the appeal of romcom movies resulting in a more glum, narcissist, grunge subgenre of romcoms.
Lopez plays Kat, a famous worldwide music celebrity with a huge following online, an act Lopez obviously lives in real life. Kat is in love with an equally talented male music star (Columbian music artist Maluma in his first role as Sebastian) and the couple are already scheduled to tie the knot in front of cameras and their entire fandom online.
At the very last minute before the wedding ceremony, Katz is heavily humiliated when video footage of her groom is leaked online showing him flirting, making out and possibly cheating with one of her assistants. The blow is so unexpected, Kat trying hard to keep her composure and balance, never stopping to think, decides she is going to go ahead anyways with the wedding and picks a man from her crowds of fans standing close who is looking at her with a sign from her own song “Marry Me”. Kat points him from the crowd (unbeknown to her, he is not a fan and was invited by a friend who is) and asks him point blank if he would marry her.
Under a ton of pressure from the cheering, adoring crowds, all urging him to say yes, the unknown husband to be (Owen Wilson as Charlie, a math teacher with a young daughter) agrees to the on-the-spot proposal and the couple are wed in an extremely odd, awkward but smile tugging ceremony.
Lopez and Maluma in Marry Me
We soon discover that Charlie was being the perfect gentleman, realizing Kat’s misfortune and pain in the moment, he agreed to her offer to wed him. His rationale being this was a moment where he should have stepped up and made her misfortune a little easier, believing they would divorce the next day when Kat’s emotions would dissipate and she would get over the scandal inflicted on her by her ex-fiancé, who of course denies any wrongdoing.
Marry Me is a tough nut, because its premise is literally nuts, not that has stopped filmmakers from the legendary years (1980s/1990s) of this genre to spin any kind of ridiculous premise for laughs and warm fuzzy moments for the audience. There has been plenty like It before however with each passing decade, so many films have engaged in more serious social and political messaging about men, women, relationships that the entire category has progressively lost its luster and ability to captivate.
“In an era in which many of Lopez’s romcom peers have pivoted to dark dramas, it’s lovely to see her still banging the drum for a genre that’s never earned the respect it’s deserved.
Then again, she knows what that feels like.”
| Adam White – Independent (UK) |
In 1985, this movie would have been a raucous hilariously wild premise heralding the age of role reversal and the comedy would have been about the indignation, the insults, the tears and commiserating with her friends, about the infidelity or some wild scheme of getting her fiancé back through jealousy.
In Marry Me, there is no such thing, the story gives a really strong-willed diva, borderline spoiled with her power, fame and riches yet paradoxically down to earth, grounded and in control of her public image, who sees this flap as a really genuine opportunity to find love, true love, and make it work when previous efforts in her little pond failed.
Why not try something different, goes the heavy-handed narrative, something the viewers can surmise, without the need for Kat and her publicity manager to engage in exposition dialogue.
Let’s put Lopez in this predicament, what would she do that would get her fans to love her even more is probably what Universal Studios producers were conjuring up at pre-production meetings. We could use a movie to launch her new studio album of the same name, Marry Me. The movie becomes in many ways a pseudo behind the scenes sneaks into how publicity managers orchestrate and manage events for the Instagram and Facebook audiences.
Marry Me’s ultimate calling card to viewers could be the nearly complete absence of high-powered romcoms from theaters for the past decade. There simply hasn’t been any big budget comedies headlined by well-known names such as was the trend with Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts. It’s a miracle this movie was made at all given all the attention thrown on Marvel’s MCU films and the science fiction, thrill-a-minute categories of spies, cars and superheroes.
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While J Lo’s songs and vocal talents cannot be reproached, her acting skills are more spotty and either shine or falter depending on the strength of the script, the director and supporting production. Her film career has been hits and misses but in Marry Me she really plays it safe by essentially playing herself.
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Marry Me
West Coast Midnight Run, Marry Me, Jennifer Lopez, JLo, Maluma, Owen Wilson, romance, romcom, comedy, movie review, film review, valentine, valentine’s day, valentino, romeo, love, dating, singles, relationships, Plenty of Fish, POF, Match.com, eHarmony, Friend Finder,
Marry Me starring J Lo, Maluma, Owen Wilson, a celebrity Latina music diva picks a husband from a crowd in a new romcom reviewed by West Coast Midnight Run™
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