Marry Me - Cheap Thoughts

How nostalgic. A simple mid-budget rom-com starring two decently popular celebrities in hopes of entertaining audiences for just under 2 hours, a staple of a bygone era. Even giving itself the increased absurdity of its premise, Marry Me is a charming romp that fulfils the basic desires sought out within its genre. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez have decent chemistry even if it’s a relationship that is intentionally tricky to pull off, they are meant to be from “completely different worlds and not fit together except surprisingly they do” and that’s actually pulled off quite well without question. The majority of the film consists of scenes with them simply bonding and building this slow relationship from the absurd starting point as they get to know each other, better each other and make on another happy as all healthy relationships should do.

That starting point if you’re unaware is that J-Lo plays an international celebrity (So herself) who was supposed to marry her equally famous partner live during a concert, however he is caught cheating minutes before, so in a state of panic, humiliation, and confusion, she picks out a random member of the audience to marry him instead. That man just happens to be our leading boy Owen Wilson, a social media hermit who has no idea who she is, he was only in attendance for the sake of his preteen daughter, and him also now being thrust into a state of confusion goes along with it and they will try to build a relationship from there, so she doesn’t seem too insane to the general public. If you can accept that wildly silly premise, then you’re likely in for a charming time.

Despite tonally being very inline with a 2000s romcom, it does still take a modern approach with its story, very aware of the presence of social media in our everyday lives, and how much of pop-culture is centred around it. It has the power to turn an average joe into an international celebrity overnight entirely by accident, but it also becomes something you are chained too and can dictate how you run your life, you’re not actually living your life for you, you live it for the views. Wilson’s character not being online makes him somewhat of a modern-day caveman considering how little he knows about pop-culture and how social interactions has changed. The film doesn’t delve too deep into this para-social nightmare, that’s not it’s place, it uses it as a tool to show the difference of worlds Wilson and Lopez lives.

It’s cute. What else could you want? A charming film for Valentine’s Day to guarantee you’ve got something romantic planned.

-Danny