Marry Me: A Perfectly Serviceable Rom-Com

There are certain genres of movies that get rated on a different scale from others. Movies in science fiction and fantasy tend to get rated on an easier scale and romantic comedies tend to get rated on a harsher scale. For example, when Mamma Mia! came out, suddenly there was grave concern over what the point of the movie was instead of allowing it to be just a fun musical. Marry Me does not do anything particularly new or unique, but it is still a fun ride to take.

Marry Me has a pretty simple premise. Jennifer Lopez plays a pop star named Kat Valdez who is about to get married to another pop star named Bastion, played by Maluma, in a massive event. It turns out he was cheating on her so, at the last possible second, she calls off the wedding and elects to marry Owen Wilson’s Charlie who was in attendance at the concert event. The journey that ensues is over whether or not Charlie and Kat will stay together or end up breaking up so she can go back to her original fiancé.

What ends up happening is all the typical events that one would come to expect from a movie like this. Kat and Charlie start rubbing off on each other as they fall in love. Charlie starts to grow to love her as a person beyond the icon that she is, and Kat grows to become more grounded. Eventually there will be some conflict between the two and it will culminate in the two moving back to each other. While thematically in the beginning, Kat choosing Charlie over Bastion is because she is acting out of spite to Bastion, by the time she makes the choice again in the end, it is about her actively weighing the two against each other and deciding which she would prefer more in her life.

A movie following a formula is not necessarily a bad thing; the existence of a formula means that there is a way that these types of movies to work in a way that resonates with audiences. In a world where a romantic comedy like this that follows the “formula” has not been done with actors that have this level of chemistry in a long time, it is oddly refreshing to watch. It feels disingenuous to say that one has to turn off their brain to enjoy the movie, but at the same time audiences have no problem doing that for any number of other action movies so why shouldn’t the same thing apply to a romantic comedy that is done well?

This movie is probably not worth seeing in theaters since there is nothing about it that requires seeing it on a large screen, but it does make for an excellent date movie. It is available for streaming on Peacock for those who want to enjoy a night in with the movie, or it can be viewed in theaters for a night out.

Final Rating: 7.5/10