“Marry Me” is a romantic-comedy directed by Kat Coiro (director of some episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Modern Family) and written by Harper Dill (writer for The Mindy Project), Tami Sagher (writer on MADtv and 30 Rock), and John Rogers (writer for “Catwoman”). Jennifer Lopez (“J.Lo”) stars as Kat Valdez, one of the most popular pop stars in the world who is about to get married to the love of her life, Bastian (played by Latin superstar Maluma in his feature-film debut), in front of over 20 million people, but when Bastian is caught cheating on her with Kat’s assistant, she looks out into the crowd and agrees to instead marry a math teacher (played by Owen Wilson) out in the audience who doesn’t even know who she is in the spur of the moment. Now the two must figure out if this was some big mistake or if there’s so such thing as accidents.
I don’t think many people would argue that Jennifer Lopez is one of the best romantic-comedy actresses out there. From “The Wedding Planner” to “Maid in Manhattan,” J.Lo really cemented herself as a great lead actress for any romantic comedy role back in the early 2000s. I, myself, am not afraid to admit that I think “Maid in Manhattan” is one of my favorite romcoms of all time (no matter what the 38 percent critic and 43 percent audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes say). Sure, some vary in quality with some being great, guilty pleasures, or downright awful, but even through some of the low points, J.Lo always remained an extremely charismatic leading actress in any romcom, or really any movie for the most part, you put her in.
But it’s been a bit since J.Lo has really been in a romcom for audiences to see if she’s still got it. Yeah, there was “Second Act” back in 2018 but that was met with mixed reviews and not a lot of people really saw it. J.Lo also had an amazing turn performance that was a bit out of comfort zone and almost landed her an Oscar nomination with 2019’s “Hustlers,” but still that wasn’t a romcom. So now that “Marry Me” is coming out just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend this year, does J.Lo still got it?
I’m happy to report that she most certainly does go it as this will definitely go down as one of the biggest surprises of the year. “Marry Me” is a return to form for J.Lo in one of her best romcoms ever in my opinion, and arguable one of the best romcoms period. Very quickly, I instantly fell in love with this movie and that’s really thanks to almost everyone involved. It captures my full attention very early on and very rarely lets me loose. There’s something really special about the movie and I was shocked at how much I laughed and teared up watching it.
I don’t think there’s much of a coincidence that this is J.Lo’s first romcom that’s directed by a woman. All her romcoms before this have been directed by men and Kat Coiro brings a lot to this that I think some of the men were missing. This is only Coiro’s second feature film and she’s mostly done television before this, but man I can’t wait to see what she does next after this. There’s so much energy to this movie and I very rarely felt any drag with the story. It’s a very sweet and charming film and a lot of that is due to how she directs it.
Another big part of why this works so well is the screenplay. Sure, it’s a story that we’ve seen a million times over, but it’s still somehow feel so fresh. The screenplay is downright hilarious and there were so many jokes had me screaming with laughter. It’s honestly one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time. I can only imagine how much a crowded theater would burst out in laughter at some of the jokes here. They’re really that good.
J.Lo of course is amazing. Sure, it’s a personality type that we’ve seen her do before, but she’s great at it and this is probably one of, if not the, first times she’s ever played the character that was the famous, unattainable one unlike her character in something like “Maid in Manhattan.” Owen Wilson is also amazing and really sells his dorky, math-loving, single father of a character very well and he’s so incredibly charming. He’s a done a bit of romcoms in the past, but he’s still a pretty unconventional romcom leading man, but that’s what makes him so great at it. Not to mention, Wilson and J.Lo have unbelievable chemistry together and really sell their relationship, the ups and the downs, very well.
The supporting cast are all amazing too and are a large chuck of all the laughing fits I had throughout the film, particularly Sarah Silverman (“School of Rock”) who is by far and away the standout in this. She has so many of the funniest lines and I’m having a hard time figuring out if they’re all the funniest because of how they’re written or because of how she delivered them. John Bradley, who was just the standout in the recent disaster flick “Moonfall,” is also amazing here and between this and the aforementioned film, he really shows his range as a comedic actor because these two character couldn’t be more different. I also want to give a shoutout to Chloe Coleman (“My Spy” and “Gunpowder Milkshake”) who once again proves herself as a young actress to look out for, adding a perfect balance of sweetness and sass to all three roles I’ve seen her in now.
This could easily feel like an advertisement for J. Lo’s new songs because a ton of her new original songs are scattered throughout this film, but luckily the story is strong enough to hold itself up beyond that. However, the songs are still all very good and even after the movie was over, there were two or three that I couldn’t get out of my head. In fact, as I’m writing this review, I’m listening to one of them right now; my favorite of the entire movie “On My Way.” “On My Way” is such a well written and performed song by J.Lo and I hope it’s strong enough for audiences to maybe, possibly get an Oscar nomination next year for Best Original Song if it’s eligible. All these songs feel like classic romcom numbers, but they’re honestly even better than that.
“Marry me” doesn’t do anything to reinvent the wheel within the romcom genre and it’s a story you’ve seen multiple times before, even from J. Lo herself, but its writing, directing and performances elevate it into something extremely charming and hilarious. It’s something familiar yet fresh that’s arrived just in time to be the perfect date movie for Valentine’s Day this year, or just a movie to watch by yourself. It’s currently in theaters and streaming on “Peacock” and I really encourage people say yes to checking it out, especially romcom fans. Also, stay through the mid-credits because there’s a special, very sweet treat.
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