Marry Me
Rom-coms don’t come much more ridiculous, cliched or chemistry-lacking than Marry Me; but despite all that, it’s a hard movie not to fall in love with.
Superstar pop singer Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is on the verge of marrying her similarly famous singer boyfriend Bastian (Maluma), in front of a live TV audience and a sell out crowd. But suddenly, on the verge of taking the stage, she discovers he’s been unfaithful with her assistant. Heartbroken, she pulls a random man from the crowd and marriage him; divorced teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), who dragged himself and his daughter along to the concert to show his young progeny that he can still be just as fun as her mother’s new boyfriend. Now married, and having only just met as they said their ‘I Do’s’, Kat and Charlie have to figure out if they want to be together or not.
Marry Me is, first and foremost, a truly ridiculous, insane conceit. The whole first act of the film constitutes the story trying (and failing) to set this up as something that could reasonably happen, and then trying to make up for the lack of realism in its premise. Once all of that settles down, the film comfortably relaxes into a rhythm of rom-com cliches, with both of our heroes being uniformly too good to be true, and their (for the most part) distinctly PG romance dripping with saccharine sweetness. Then there’s the chemistry of our two leads, or lack thereof; the spark between J Lo and Wilson is virtually non-existent, and that further lends awkwardness to the romantic scenes between the pair.
All of this sets the film up for a disastrous outcome. What’s shocking, then, is that it’s actually enjoyable.
There’s nothing new here, but letting Marry Me wash over you like a comforting, familiar and soothing sound is the way to go. You can easily turn your brain off, laugh at Sarah Silverman’s endless gags (she’s the MVP of this piece by far), enjoy the glorious visuals, the OTT New York apartments, and the general feel-good sweetness of the film. It doesn’t make it by any means a good movie, but it’s definitely something enjoyable in the end. There’ll be laughs, smiles and even, perhaps, the occasional tear.
