(Funny how some men conveniently lump all sorts of sleazy behavior under the moniker of “pre-marital jitters”)
CAST: Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Bridgette Wilson, Judy Greer, Alex Rocco, Justin Chambers, Joanna Gleason, Kathy Najimy, Frances Bay.
DIRECTOR: Adam Shankman
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and one groom and one wedding planner behaving badly – straight ahead…
Someone once said to me that I had a knack for event planning. Not sure if this is true, but I do know that I love parties, and I love putting them together. Is that enough to make me good at it? Some friends seem to think so. I suppose it all goes back to that old saying: “to be able to do something well, you have to enjoy doing it.” Which is the burning question at the center of our next review, the J.Lo/M.Con fluff-vehicle THE WEDDING PLANNER.
J. Lo is Mary Fiore, an Italian-American hottie who’s not just your average event planner. She’s a few leagues above throwing together Oscar Parties or Cinco De Mayo Tequila Fests. The event that our dear Mary specializes in is weddings. She’s such a pro at it that she often saves potential matrimonial train wrecks – at least on the day of the wedding. What actually happens during the marriage is not her fucking problem.
But during the wedding day itself, there isn’t a problem that Mary can’t solve. You name it, Mary has encountered it and squashed it into oblivion: (1) drunken fathers-of-the-bride, (2) best men who stink at public speaking, or (3) guests who mistakenly think the Greek tradition of smashing plates traveled across the Atlantic unscathed – just to name a few. The splendid Ms. Fiore has sailed through all these calamities with the sangfroid of a supermodel on a vodka buzz.
Mary’s natural skill at wedding planning is all very interesting – considering she has always avoided marriage, or even relationships. As she herself says at one point: “You know how those who can’t do, teach? Well, those who can’t wed, plan.” I couldn’t have said it better myself even if I had the brains to, uh, say it better myself.
All that changes, though, when Mary steps out onto the street one day and has the following happen to her: (1) she gets the heel of her very expensive pump caught in a manhole; (2) she gets stuck there as a runaway dumpster careens down a hill towards her; (3) she gets saved at the last minute by a blond hottie who looks a lot like Matthew McConaughey; and (4) she hits her head on the pavement and tells him he “smells like red plums and grilled cheese sandwiches.” Please try to avoid wondering if the screenwriters of this flick were high on a combo of Xanax and Everclear when they wrote that scene.
At any rate, this bizarre “meet-cute” leads to Mary discovering the following things about the blonde hottie who looks a lot like Matthew McConaughey: (1) he is a doctor named Steve Edison; (2) he likes old movies; and (3) he is indeed played by Matthew McConaughey. Through the subtle-as-as-jackhammer approach of Mary’s goofball assistant, Penny (Judy Greer), our heroine and the good (we think) doctor end up going on a date in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where they watch old movies, dance, and give each other major googly eyes.
In other words, things are starting to look pretty promising for our single workaholic. That is, until she handles the make-or-break wedding of Fran Donnolly (Bridgette Wilson), a sort-of young Martha Stewart who is about to make the leap into the matrimonial abyss. Fran introduces Mary to her groom, and let’s just say that he’s not exactly an unfamiliar face to our hard-working wedding planner. If you’re actually surprised that he turns out to be Dr. Steve, he of the runaway dumpster disaster and subsequent gooey date in the park, then you, my friend, have not seen enough clichéd romantic comedies. Get thy ass to a Netflix!
So… what happens now? Is Steve a cheating bastard? Will Mary blow the whistle on him? Or were Steve’s intentions somehow honorable? Is he just having “cold feet”? Does he really love Fran? Or is he falling for Mary? And speaking of our beleaguered wedding planner, will she step on her feelings for Steve to get the job done? Or will she succumb? And the most important questions of all: is it possible that I’ve finally found a Matthew McConaughey movie in which he doesn’t remove his shirt??
Somewhere in the Sahara, a blizzard is forming…
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Commonly knocked for being nothing more than a huge piece of fluff, THE WEDDING PLANNER is actually a little bit more than that – and it’s largely due to the nicely-layered unplanned romance between Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey’s characters. The movie doesn’t let these two off the hook for essentially engaging in what is passive infidelity, but it doesn’t judge them, either. Rather, the script lets them deal with the dilemma in a way that is surprisingly believable for a romantic comedy that constantly takes the screwball route. This makes the surprisingly serious passages all the more, uh, surprising.
In my humble opinion, Jennifer Lopez has never looked lovelier than when she starred in this film. She fleshes Mary Fiore out into a smart, capable woman who has gotten just a little too good at organizing and planning other people’s happiness, that she’s forgotten to craft her own. While Lopez occasionally goes the cloying cutesy route, she largely plays her character as relatively straightforward, with quiet strength and subtle vulnerability. Plus, Mary’s a terrific wedding planner – and nothing is sexier than a woman who is great at her job.
Matthew McConaughey and Bridgette Wilson actually play far more complicated roles than Lopez. Steve and Fran are one of those couples that might have had a great marriage if they would have wed five years earlier – at least for awhile. The flame has waned, though, and they both sense it. Steve could have easily come across as a sleazy cad, but McConaughey’s direct and no-nonsense demeanor keeps us on his side. He ably conveys Steve’s hidden confusion and “cold feet”. Similarly, Wilson is terrific, and she wisely follows the script’s lead in not turning Fran into a one-dimensional bitch. Instead, we get a woman who can be strident when she wants to, but is aware of this weakness and actively tries to remedy it. Fran’s unexpected tentativeness is surprising for such a successful and seemingly self-assured character. It also helps that Wilson is one gorgeous woman who has a nice, sisterly vibe with Lopez – just like their characters.
Of the supporting cast, honorable mention should go to Kathy Najimy and Judy Greer as, respectively: (1) Mary’s wacky boss/partner; and (2) Mary’s irreverent and quirky assistant. Greer, in particular, is a hoot and would go on to be the bright spots in many comedies.
In the end, THE WEDDING PLANNER is not a perfect romantic comedy, but for a “fluffy” movie, it addresses issues of potential infidelity and conflicting emotions with a surprisingly sober approach. And that’s more than you can say for your average romantic comedy…
