Rated PG-13 for language and some sexual humor.
103 Minutes
Directed By: Adam Shankman
Written By: Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis
Staring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lopez, Bridgette Wilson, Justin Chambers, Judy Greer, and Alex Rocco
“Love cant always be perfect. Love is just love.” -Massimo
Review
The Wedding Planner has one the award for least hated Jennifer Lopez movie since Out Of Sight. That may be the only award it will ever win, but it’s the best that I have. It still has the typical awkward acting, and predictable life force as many other Jennifer Lopez romantic comedies, but this one had Matthew McConaughey and Adam Shankman. These two additions helped up the quality of what was being served.
Jennifer Lopez plays a wedding planner of exceptional skill, that while has managed to help hundreds of brides tie the knot, she has not found love herself. Married to her career with the dreams and desires of becoming a partner in her wedding planning company, love has been put on the back burner until by some unlikely force of events she is saved by a man who appears to be her soul mate while also landing the wedding that will be her ticket to her partnership.
Matthew McConaughey is his usual charming self, playing a pediatrician engaged to a statuesque woman played by Bridgette Wilson who he really likes and may have even once loved. When his character develops an attraction beyond the physical to Mary, the one woman planning his wedding, things get complicated. This makes his character seem truly unlikable, especially since Bridgette Wilson is so incredibly enthusiastic and committed to their relationship, but somehow McConaughey’s character, Steve, is portrayed in a way that you almost can forgive him. Jennifer Lopez is at her best in this performance, where she is actually empathetic. By avoiding her feelings and trying to please the people around her, but simultaneously giving up her own happiness she avoids being the person, Mary would have hated, and that gave the role some credibility.
The slapstick humor was thrown in at awkward times, along with the necessity of Matthew McConaughey constantly being Mary’s knight in shining armor. There was a constant compulsion for the over the top moments of heightened excitement, but the moments that were the best involved Some of the annoying resolved itself with cute dialogue and the occasional redeemable moments mostly delivered by Massimo, the man hopelessly in love with Mary.
In films like this, there always seems to be so much going on, and so many complications between the characters that it often is hard to really gain perspective on their situations or the film as a whole, but perhaps that’s the point when you are making a movie that isn’t the most realistic in it’s essence. The Wedding Planner was too much most of the time, but it salvaged some of the weaker moments better than a lot of movies in this genre and even made me chuckle once or twice.
first you lost the time it took to watch this movie and then however long it took you to type out the review….I’m so sorry you’ll never get it back
I won’t. I won’t ever watch it again, but it was as bad as it could have been. Like that darn Ashton Kutcher/Brittany Murphy one.