Marry Me

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, John Bradley, Maluma, Sarah Silverman, Chloe Coleman

Director: Kat Coiro

Based on the graphic novel "Marry Me" by Bobby Crosby

Pop superstar Kat Valdez (Lopez) is about to take the next step in her life by getting married on stage to her partner (in life and musically) Bastian (Maluma) to the song they wrote together called "Marry Me." Moments before the big moment, news breaks of Bastian cheating on her with her assistant. In a moment of panic, she spots math teacher Charlie (Wilson) in the crowd holding a sign that says Marry Me and brings him on stage to complete the ceremony. Charlie, who was only at the concert at the request of his friend and coworker Parker (Silverman) and daughter Lou (Coleman), agrees to keep up appearances for a few months as her manager Collin (Bradley) has offered him a large sum of money to put towards helping the school. As Charlie finds himself on a whirlwind tour of Kat's life, the duo find there is more to each other than meets the eye and maybe the spontaneous moment that unexpectedly brought them together was what they both needed.

I completely understand I am not the target audience for films like this and I am pretty cynical about them. That being said, this is quite a charming movie and works because of the unlikely paring of the two leads.

Jennifer Lopez, playing a version of herself, returns to the romantic comedy genre and to be honest, she could play this type of role in her sleep and is able keep Kat charming and likable as a romantic lead. Her pairing with Owen Wilson might seem odd but it serves the story well and their chemistry is undeniable. In fact, the movie works best once their pairing begins and we see their relationship blossom. The progression of their relationship feels natural and I was rooting for them quite quickly into the film.

My cynicism with romantic comedies wasn't completely extinguished though, as the movie goes out of its way to put in some false conflict. It feels unnecessary and counter to the growth in the relationship to the characters. The affair that starts the plot in motion also ends up feeling like an afterthought. Which would have been fine if the movie hadn't tried to inject the fake drama and focus on what was working.

Another thing that I'm usually cynical about is the grand gesture at the end of romantic comedies but here it works because we're rooting for Kat and Charlie. It helps too that it comes at in the unexpected location of a math-a-lon competition.

The movie also fails to check off the other trademark of romantic comedies- the comedy. While the film is plenty romantic, I don't know that I really laughed at all. I definitely smiled quite a bit but that was more at the romantic aspect.

I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did. While it can't help but fall in to some familiar romantic comedy trappings, the romantic pairing of Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson is a winning one.

Grade: B-

Marry Me is available in theaters and on Peacock.