Marry Me
UniversalWith Valentine’s Day around the corner, it seems that a romantic comedy renaissance is on the horizon. A genre that has famously – with some exceptions – been not great over recent years, Kat Coiro’s Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, harkens back to the rom-com heyday of the early 2000s. Marry Me goes back to the roots of the romantic comedy genre, with a ridiculous premise, oodles of chemistry between its leads, and tried and true tropes. Marry Me is an escapist fairytale with the perfect amount of romanticism.
The film opens with popstar Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) on a meteoric rise. Her new single ‘Marry Me’ sung with fiancé Bastian (Maluma) is climbing the charts and the couple is preparing to take their wedding vows in a very public ceremony at Valdez’s upcoming New York City concert. Meanwhile, there is dorky math teacher and single dad Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), who worries that his daughter Lou (Chloe Coleman) thinks he’s boring. When Parker’s (Sarah Silverman) date falls through, Charlie joins Parker at the Kat Valdez concert, bringing along Lou and hopefully scoring cool dad points. The trio watches as Kat comes on stage in a custom wedding gown, tears in her eyes. She’s just found out that Bastian was caught cheating on her with her assistant. Stars align and Kat spots Charlie in the crowd holding Parker’s ‘Marry Me’ sign. She brings him on-stage and on a whim, they marry each other.
This is the wacky scenario that sets the ground for Marry Me. And yet, seasoned rom-com veterans Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez make it work. Instead of calling the marriage off, Kat and her team convince Charlie to go along with it. Through the fake dating, an iconic rom-com staple, Kat is able to take back her narrative after the embarrassment Bastian caused, while Charlie uses the faux relationship as a way to fundraise for his school’s mathlete team. Naturally, the pair put a timeline to end the relationship, giving it 3-6 months and seeing where things go.
From there, Marry Me becomes a little more grounded in reality but maintains the fantasy romance that the genre is known for. With plenty of rom-com experience to back them up, Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson share wonderful chemistry and make it believable that Kat and Charlie would fall for each other every day they get to know each other. Both divorced, Kat and Charlie share different feelings about love. Kat remains an optimist and hopeful romantic, while Charlie’s mathematical brain sees marriage as more of a statistics game. Kat of course is a pop superstar who documents her entire life for social media, while Charlie is a down to earth and introverted. They’re total opposites but Kat and Charlie bring out the best in each other as Marry Me goes through the rom-com motions.
Marry Me has everything required of the romantic comedy genre. Much of the laughs are brought by best friend Sarah Silverman while it also delivers on deeper moments, especially between Charlie and his daughter. However, some cliches bring the film down, and there’s way too much sponsored content. Vitamix blenders are mentioned one too many times, and there’s a particularly cringey line read about building websites. The writing of the film’s downturn is also a little messily executed, especially with how well Kat and Charlie were getting along for much of Marry Me, but the film redeems itself with its mushy ending.
Marry Me knows exactly what it’s going for, and in a time where films of all genres try and reinvent or bend the rules, it’s lovely to see Marry Me going back to what is formulaic about romantic comedies. It’s surprising how sweet Marry Me ends up being but the feature brings back a simpler time and cements itself as a classic in its genre.