Director: Kat Coiro
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman
Running Time: 112 minutes
Running Time: 112 minutes
Synopsis: Music mega-star Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is about to get married (for the fourth time) to fellow music star Bastian (Maluma). But just as they are supposed to exchange on-stage vows in front of 20 million viewers, Kat discovers that Bastian has been cheating. On a whim, she plucks high school math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), a divorced dad, out of the crowd and marries him instead. They subsequently agree to get to know each other for a few months, giving love an opportunity to blossom.
What Works Well: This romantic fairytale combines the fakery of living through the lens of social media saturation with a search for true love. Despite the inherent incompatibility of the central couple, Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson bring just enough chemistry to add an endearing layer of affection. A sub-plot revolving around Charlie's pre-teen daughter and a math club competition is a movie-within-a-movie, and adds real-life flavours away from the razzle-dazzle of superstardom.
What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is as far-fetched as rom-coms go, Kat and Charlie sharing nothing in common before or during their romance. The running time is padded by at least 15 minutes, and instead of tackling the comprehensive sacrifices needed for this romance to work, the script is instead occupied by the predictable beats of unlikely love found, unlikely love challenged, and unlikely love confirmed.
Key Quote:
Charlie: Is this smart?
Kat: I think we left smart six weeks ago.
All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
I have a monthly movie club, and we watched this for our February movie in 2023 (I think). I don't think any of us have talked about it since.
ReplyDeleteOn a weird sidenote, I actually read the first hundred pages or so of the webcomic this was based on.
Yes, this one is easy to watch, very easy to forget.
Delete