Marry Me

Marry Me is a formulaic romantic comedy that succeeds solely on the pairing of its lead actors.  You have Jennifer Lopez doing what she does best, playing a glitzy and fashionable pop star with a good heart, and Owen Wilson doing what he absolutely does best, playing a likable dork who seems to be holding back from blurting out "Aw, shucks..." every few minutes.  The script itself may be more than a little hard to swallow, but they're able to make it work.

That's what sets it apart from another movie this weekend, Blacklight.  Both have been written in such a way so that you already know all the major plot developments walking in, but this movie has life to it and the performances, so it goes down easily enough.  Like 1999's Notting Hill, or more recently Finding You from last year, the film is an old fashioned romance about an ordinary person falling in love with a celebrity, and how their different worlds clash.  Lopez, naturally, plays the superstar, Kat Valdez, who is in all the tabloids and talk shows, and is planning to get married to her fellow superstar lover, Bastian (recording artist Maluma) in front of thousands of cheering fans at Madison Square Garden in a concert/wedding/media event hybrid.  Wilson is Charlie Gilbert, a divorced Middle School Math teacher with a preteen daughter (Chloe Coleman) who couldn't care less about celebrity and fame, until he is dragged into it through circumstances that seem far fetched even by Hollywood formula standards.  

How's this for a Meet Cute set up?  Charlie and his daughter just happen to be at Kat's concert/wedding thanks to Charlie's friend from work, Parker (Sarah Silverman), who hooked them up with tickets.  Just as Kat and Bastian are to exchange vows on stage, social media blows up with a story that Bastian has been having an affair.  A heartbroken Kat takes the stage alone, and in a desperate move, decides to pick a random man from the audience to take the stage and marry her.  No prizes for guessing that Charlie is the guy in the crowd she chooses.  This down to Earth ordinary guy becomes attached to the most sought-after woman on the planet, and instantly becomes a celebrity himself.  Kat's manager (John Bradley, recently seen in Moonfall) wants to pay Charlie off, and put this whole mess behind them, but Kat actually wants to spend some time and get to know this random guy from the crowd.

Wouldn't you know, it turns out Kat and Charlie are a good match, and they start getting closer the more time they spend together.  Will their potential budding romance be threatened by Bastian's efforts to fix his mistake?  Will Charlie and Kat break up temporarily, because Charlie just thinks he doesn't belong in her world?  Will the movie climax with one of the characters having to run to join the other at some kind of important event at the last minute?  I assume you already know the answers to each of these questions.  Marry Me might be predictable throughout, but the sweet romantic chemistry that Lopez and Wilson bring make it worth watching.  This is a movie that holds no surprises, but it wins you over in other ways.

There are some genuinely sweet moments here, such as a scene built around the musical Camelot, or when Kat makes a couple surprise visits at Charlie's school.  And despite the ludicrous premise, the movie does have a very low key tone to it that helps keep it grounded in some kind of reality.  In fact, the only time the movie grated on me just a little are some of the "wacky" supporting characters, such as Silverman as Wilson's best friend, who comes across as a forced comedic live wire character, and doesn't show any of the wit or intelligence that I know the actress is capable of.  Luckily, the film is smart enough to focus on the central relationship, and doesn't get too distracted with unnecessary characters or subplots.  

Marry Me works as romantic escapism, as long as you don't think too much about it.  Luckily, thinking is not required in a movie like this, and it has enough charm that I didn't mind checking my brain for it.  It's a quiet, sweet, and unassuming little movie, and that quality definitely helps its over the top premise go down easier. 

0 comments