Marry Me

J Lo and Owen Wilson tie the knot up in knots in director Kat Coiro’s amusing rom-com Marry Me. Kat (Lopez) is a pop superstar whose hit song “Marry Me” is a duet with her pop star fiancé Bastian (Maluma). They are burning up social media with their upcoming concert where they will get married in front of 20 million streaming viewers.

Charlie (Wilson), a fuddy-duddy math teacher with a flip phone, who is solely fixated on his school’s math team, couldn’t give a fig about any of this. However, his 12-year-old daughter, Lou (Chloe Coleman), is quite excited by all of it. This enthusiasm is spurred on by her mom’s fun, new boyfriend. So when guidance counselor Parker (Sarah Silverman) has extra tickets to go to Kat’s big show, Charlie drags himself along because it’ll make him seem less boring to Lou.

“…Kat marries Charlie at the concert instead, much to everyone’s surprise.”

Moments before the vows are sung, Kat discovers Bastian has been unfaithful in a glittering onstage catastrophe. Emotionally shattered, she sees Charlie holding on to a “Marry Me” sign for someone else. So Kat marries Charlie at the concert instead, much to everyone’s surprise. Kat’s manager Colin (John Bradley), throws a cow over the whole thing at first, but he notices that social media seem to like it. So, the three-times married Kat convinces her manager to let her give this a try, at least for a month or two. While Charlie was only trying to help the crying lady onstage, he now seems cool to his kid and students. Both know the marriage, which hasn’t been consummated, is a sham, yet they seem to care about each other. However, for Kat, the fast lane life with Bastian calls. Wherever will her heart go next?

Marry Me is based on a graphic novel written by Bobby Crosby. That should snap some pre-conceived notions about romantic comedy potential. I am baffled as to why some folks avoid rom-coms like pavement needles. Sure, there is a presumption that the endings are predictable, but it isn’t whether the couple gets together at the end, but how the hell will it happen. An effective rom-com makes it seem impossible that two opposite people could ever end up together. It is the fun of running through the madcap labyrinths of love without seeing the resolution around the corner. It cannot simply be delivered. It needs to be earned.