It’s Valentine’s Day weekend and sure enough, the local multiplex (and through the streamer Peacock—after all, we’re still in a pandemic) has itself a rom-com with a heavy emphasis on the rom. Kat Coiro’s Marry Me stars Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson as a perfectly imperfect match.
J. Lo is portraying a version of herself, here known as Kat Valdez—a multi-platinum selling artist known the globe over for producing tracks that make you want to move. In Marry Me, the film’s moniker stems from a hit song recorded by Valdez, with her fiancé, a fellow singer Bastian (played with just the right amount of bravado from Colombia native and a singing superstar in his own right, Maluma). The plan is that the pair will put on a show at “the most famous arena in the world,” i.e., Madison Square Garden (MSG), perform the blockbuster track, and then exchange vows in front of 20,000 live fans and millions more streaming on the internet.
Quite the endeavor, huh?
Well, it is not without glitches and a doozy arrives in the form of a breaking entertainment news study that Bastian has been stepping out on Kat. To say that sends our protagonist into a tailspin is a fair way to describe it. Most people don’t marry a man carrying a “Marry Me” sign named Charlie Gilbert (Wilson). He happens to be attending the show with his BFF Parker (Sarah Silverman) and his 8-year-old daughter Lou (Chloe Coleman). What’s a guy to do? With a supportive nod from his daughter, Charlie heads onto the MSG stage and marries a pop star who he had previously never met except what he heard on the radio and saw on MTV—kidding, seriously, when was the last time MTV played a video?
The thing is, despite the swinging for the fences premise of Marry Me, or perhaps because of that elaborate premise, Wilson and Lopez have chemistry to burn and Coleman is adorable. All three parts were written by screenwriters John Rogers and Harper Dill (from the graphic novel by Bobby Crosby) by folks who cared about them and sought this unlikely of scenarios to work within the framework of the landscape they had created.
Much of the heavy lifting seems effortless from Wilson and Lopez. His awe-shucks demeanor and her glamourous, yet still very much the “Jenny From the Block” intertwine as beautiful as musical harmony when it’s done with passion and precision. Lopez is not playing herself, obviously, but the performance seems natural because of the countless similarities—such as being married three times, producing Latin-inspired pop music with unmistakable melodies that are irresistible in their banger-ness.
Lopez likes her rom-coms and has made more misses than hits over her career. Lately, she has been choosing her film projects wisely. The Bronx native even garnered Oscar buzz for 2019’s Hustlers in between Las Vegas residencies and 2018’s Second Act—both films played to her strengths Now, with Marry Me, she has a romantic comedy with an emphasis on the romance. In this film, she is perfection.
Kat seemingly has it all, but success is empty without someone special to share it with. That is sorely missing, as painted by filmmakers, screenwriters, and the actress through her talents.
When a couple is in that—for lack of a better word, courting—stage, a person’s quirks are what endear us to them. So, it only makes sense that these two believably would potentially fall for each other as they traverse the planet because it happens so organically.
Wilson plays a math teacher, doing his best to pick up the pieces for the sake of his firecracker daughter, Lou. He is doing that, and much more. So, of course, his priorities will be making this attractive insanity workable only as long as his family doesn’t suffer. Yeah, nobody is suffering in Marry Me, except maybe Bastian.
Occasionally, audiences need a film that makes us collectively smile and leaves us with a sense of hope that when all is said and done, all we do need is love. Marry Me is that movie and Happy Valentine’s Day to the planet.
Grade: B