Marry Me (2022)

By: Mike Ward on Sunday, February 13

PG-13 Running Time: 112 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Though it is as predictable a movie as you’ll ever find, Marry Me is a fine choice for a date night or to watch with a pint of ice cream in your favorite pajamas.

  • Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson know the gig and are savvy enough actors that they find great chemistry and pull this whole thing off.

  • Preposterous, but that’s part of its charm.

NO

  • Marry Me fully embraces the formula romantic comedy methodology which will immediately turn some people away.

  • Misses so many golden opportunities that would make this so much better.

  • Definitely feels like this could all be designed to resurrect Jennifer Lopez’s career as a top-of-the-charts pop star and bankable box office draw.


OUR REVIEW

As preposterous as it is entertaining, Marry Me is Jennifer Lopez’s return to the romantic comedy formula that made her one of the biggest movie stars in the early 2000’s. A premise I think might exist to give J. Lo a new hit album and a couple new Top 40 hits, Marry Me is adapted from an online graphic novel of the same name where a global mega pop star marries a total stranger holding a “Marry Me” sign in the audience.

To be fair, there is a bit more to it than that. Lopez stars as Kat Valdez, the superstar engaged to Puerto Rican pop star Bastian (Maluma). Together, their ballad “Marry Me” is the biggest hit in the land and they have orchestrated a joint concert where the two will perform together and then get married on stage. The mega event is expected to be viewed by more than 20 million people around the world. 

Moments before the nuptials take place, online tabloid Page Six shares video of Bastian making out with Kat’s personal assistant. Given the news as she is about to appear on stage, Kat cuts the music, gives an impassioned speech about being in the moment, and then improbably sees a man in the crowd (Owen Wilson), holding his best friend’s “Marry Me” sign. She calls him up on stage. He, a divorced dad to 12-year-old daughter Lou (Chloe Coleman), goes along with it and soon, the two are married and the unassuming Charlie Gilbert becomes a household name.

Okay. There are willing suspensions of disbelief and then there’s Marry Me. The whole thing as silly as a Hallmark Channel Movie of the Week. However, Lopez fits the role of Kat pretty perfectly and Wilson’s geeky, slightly uncool middle school math teacher is a character he can infuse a lot of charm into.

And so we’re off. Valdez’s team brokers a deal with Charlie to stay married and try things out for a few months. Charlie becomes an instant celebrity and photo op husband for a while. But then, and I hope you’re sitting down for this plot twist…sparks emerge and the two begin to wonder if it just might be worth giving this whole marriage-thing something of a fair shot.

Throughout director Kat Coiro’s film, everything is predictable and pays off precisely as one would expect. Kat surprises Charlie at his after school math club, the Pi-Thons, and wins them over (and Lou too of course) by dancing and singing with them. Kat “banks” away her life with a 24/7 videographer, Kofi (Kahlil Middleton), who seems to always be by her side, no matter where she goes or what she does. Charlie, obviously, is never fully comfortable in Kat’s world and she is trying to get comfortable in his. Together, Lopez and Wilson somehow make this whole thing watchable, developing natural chemistry with one another that has us smiling and engaged despite the contrived obviousness of what we are watching.

Above all else, Marry Me misses some chances to be pretty terrific. Kofi, and the idea of Kat having a constant videographer, is primed for comedy gold that is grossly underutilized. More context between why Charlie’s ex-wife decided to up and leave him is really never explored. Charlie’s best friend, Parker, played by a recharged Sarah Silverman, has a hilarious anger over a recent girlfriend dumping her after a 17 day relationship. More certainly could have been done to mine that subplot for more moments of hilarity.

And to be fair, doubling down on the safe choices is a decision romantic comedies make all the time. A recent exception to this formula is the exceptional Oscar-nominated film from Norway, The Worst Person in the World. The beauty of that film is the ways in which it embraces and reinvents the rom-com formula with identifiable, relatable people making real mistakes people like you and I can make everyday. In that film, people must try and understand the ramifications for the decisions they make when faced before those they truly love.

I’m not saying Marry Me needs to become a completely different movie, but it is frustrating how much is left on the table and ignored - little touches and add-ons that would make this far more memorable and allow it to stand out from so many of the formulaic predecessors it seems to want to emulate.

Lopez and Wilson, and a splash of Sarah Silverman, still find a way to make this a movie that can win you over just enough to overlook those potential moments. This is date night in a box, or a pajama flick, or the movie that encourages you to finish that pint of ice cream or the rest of that bottle of wine. It’s harmless, easy, and enjoyable. It also could have been so much more.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley, Sarah Silverman, Chloe Coleman, Michelle Buteau, Khalil Middleton, Kat Cunning, Taliyah Whitaker, Jameela Jamil, Ryan Foust

Director: Kat Coiro
Written by: John Rogers, Tami Sagher, Harper Dill
Adapted from the online graphic novel “Marry Me” by Bobby Crosby
Release Date: February 11, 2022
Universal Pictures/Peacock