Marry Me; Grade: C+
Marry Me tells a story about a pop star named Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) whom is bound to get married to another pop star named Bastian (Maluma). Their wedding arrangement is quite different than any other average norm, as they engage their vows in front of a live audience in Madison Square Garden, while also being seen by twenty million people across the globe. As Kat is bound to get ready for the ceremony, Kat learns that Bastian has been cheating on her, as she calls off the engagement. However while Kat goes on an emotional break down, she spots a fan holding up a “Marry Me” sign as she calls that fan up as she’ll marry that fan. Turns out: The fan isn’t actually a fan of Kat at all, in fact he’s just a regular boring math teacher by the name of Charlie (Owen Wilson) whom only went to the concert to prove to his daughter that he’s cool. Charlie however agrees to marry Kat, as then the two will be situated in an arrangement in which they’ll pretend to be married for months until this thing blows over. Will Charlie and Kat learn to find love within each other over the course of time?
Thankfully the streak of bad theatrical films of 2022 is finally over, as Marry Me turns out to be a harmless average at best romantic comedy film.
When the plot line was presented: I honestly laughed my ass off in a good way. I mean the moment of this boring math teacher getting called up to marry this pop star, as he looked ever so confused… It was hilarious, this was honestly the best part of the entire film for me.
Owen Wilson honestly had the best performance in this entire film for me, I felt he was a perfect choice to play this role as a boring math teacher, who can’t stand modern day technology, however has a pure genuine soul… He was born to play this role. Jennifer Lopez does deliver a perfectly fine performance as well, I felt her chemistry with Wilson was done well, while also delivering some wonderful songs in the film as well.
The story itself is pretty much by the numbers, as it was fairly predictable. I felt the character development between our romantic pair could’ve been developed better, the way this film is trying to make one another understand their own worlds whether it be Charlie living in reality while Kat living by the world of social media… It wasn’t handled the best way possible. I think Charlie did helped Kat in a way to be more independent and to be less off the phone, however Kat really didn’t do too much for Charlie as he continued to say it’s a horrible way to go about life as far as partaking in social media and such.
I will say the comedic relief of this film Parker (Sarah Silverman)… This character was quite bland and a bit irritating to watch. She didn’t deliver a single funny thing in this entire film, just felt like a waste of a character. The comedy material did have a couple hits and a fair amount of misses, however doesn’t exactly capture the hilarious moment in the introduction so was a little bummed out with the material.
Overall, Marry Me was a perfectly average film. I recommend checking this one out, it’s a nice a little date night kind of film at the theaters. -Mitch Smietana