PLOT: A global pop star (Jennifer Lopez) is jilted at the altar by her fiancee and spontaneously marries a mild-mannered teacher (Owen Wilson). Initially, the two play along for the publicity but are surprised when they have more in common than they ever expected.
REVIEW: A strange thing occurred to me when watching Marry Me. You could have made the same movie, meaning the same premise and stars, twenty years ago, and it would have worked. What I mean by this is that star Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson were the go-to people for movies like this in 2002, and twenty years later, their status hasn’t really changed. How often can you say that about stars? Perhaps it helps that both look pretty much the same as they did in 2002, with them among the most ageless people in Hollywood. Wilson may be looked a touch more weathered in Loki, but that was probably played up. Sporting his familiar blond shaggy locks here, he doesn’t look any different than he did in The Wedding Crashers, while Lopez, arguably, looks better than ever.
The considerable charms of its two stars aside, Marry Me is a pleasingly retro rom-com. This would have seemed assembly line a decade or so ago, but the genre has taken a beating lately and consigned mostly to streaming services and Lifetime. By contrast, Marry Me is relatively lavish, and the hook isn’t half bad. Both Lopez and Wilson play to type, but the fact that they’re so uncomplicatedly sweet in this is almost refreshing.
Here, Lopez plays an often married pop star named Kat Valdez, who’s about to settle down with another global icon, Maluma’s Bastian. However, it turns out Bastian is still fooling around with ladies behind her back. Too bad, as she was set to marry him in the middle of a major concert, that Owen Wilson’s mild-mannered school teacher just so happened to get tickets to. He has no idea who she is but is there to make his tween daughter think he’s cool, and got the tickets thanks to his best friend, played by Sarah Silverman. When she’s jilted, she picks him out at random, but is quickly charmed by the fact that he doesn’t care bout her money and wealth, has no interest in being famous and says what he thinks. Do you want to bet the two will end up together?
Of course, you don’t watch a movie like Marry Me, hoping they won’t get together, but overall they make for a nice pair. Something is refreshing about the fact that both are likable, uncomplicated characters. It’s also a spin on the “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl” formula by making it more “girl meets boy, girl loses boy, etc.” The supporting cast is well assembled, with Silverman playing to type as Wilson’s BFF, while John Bradley (good ol’ Samwell from Game of Thrones– the guy everyone likes) – who’s everywhere these days – is Lopez’s supportive manager.
To be sure, Marry Me doesn’t reinvent the rom-com. If it had come out during the genre’s heyday, I wouldn’t have thought it was anything special, but the pairing of two big stars in a relatively lavish example of the genre feels rare these days, making Marry Me a decent enough throwback to the genre. If you like these kinds of movies, this one isn’t bad.
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