After her Oscar-worthy turn in Hustlers, hopes were high that Jennifer Lopez would continue picking edgier material for her to-do list.
Marry Me has a few interesting bits about the reality of life and relationships in the public eye - something Lopez has already written a book about called True Love - but it doesn't ask a lot of its star-producer and is very much a by-the-numbers movie for the weekend that's in it.
Essentially a reworking of the Notting Hill set-up with songs thrown in, it sees Lopez's "no stranger to weddings" music icon Kat Valdez going for broke by proposing to randomer Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) at the gig where she was meant to exchange vows with cheating superstar Bastian (Maluma). Only there because his daughter wanted to go to the show, Charlie agrees out of sympathy - and shellshock. If you can handle that turn of events, chances are you'll enjoy what happens next.
With Kat's management thrilled that out of "10,000 potential dumpster fires" she picked a "decent, straight, single father with no criminal record and get this - he's a math teacher" from the audience, an agreement is reached where Charlie will help Kat get her credibility back by playing along with the set-up for a while as it morphs into good PR. You don't need to be a practitioner of the dark arts to foresee what happens next.
Based on the online graphic novel of the same name by Bobby Crosby, Marry Me survives the '20,000 Feet Test' - you'd watch it on a plane. Now, it doesn't reach the same heartstring heights as Lopez's rom-com pinnacle Maid in Manhattan, but her fans will have no issues with the easy chemistry between herself and Wilson as the clock winds down to the leave-me-breathless conclusion.
With the comedy chops of Sarah Silverman (Charlie's friend) and Games of Thrones' John Bradley (Kat's manager) available, it's frustrating that Marry Me doesn't try for more laughs - especially when you see how good Lopez is during that teetering-on-high-heels, race-against-time finale. Maybe it's the time of year or, indeed, the last two years, but it all feels quite sweet in the end.
"If you sit in the question, the answer will find you," we're told in one of Marry Me's life lesson moments. Good advice - but Lopez already knows the kind of films she should be making.
