Marry me

Marry me
Original title:Marry me
Director:Kat Coiro
Release:Cinema
Running time:112 minutes
Release date:11 february 2022
Rating:
Kat Valdez, a star of the music scene forms a glamorous couple with her future half, the young singer prodigy Bastian. While their duet Marry Me is a box-office hit, the lovers are planning to say yes for life in front of a crowd of screaming fans, during a ceremony broadcasted on a multiplex. In the crowd, Charlie Gilbert, a divorced math teacher, who chaperones his daughter Lou with her best friend, attends the event in spite of himself. But when Kat learns seconds before the ceremony that Bastian has cheated on her with his own assistant, her entire life is thrown into question. She enters the stage, upset, and just as everything is about to fall apart in front of everyone, she clings to the face of a stranger in the crowd. If the one she knew could have betrayed her, maybe a stranger could save her. Following this crazy impulse, she decides to marry this stranger who is none other than Charlie. Against all odds, what started on a whim turns into a true love story. But can two people from such different worlds overcome their prejudices and find common ground, when everything seems to want to separate them?

Mulder's Review

Marry me is certainly one of the good surprises of this beginning of the year and above all a romantic and musical comedy that is a real pleasure to watch as the chemistry between Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson works perfectly on the screen. Even if the story itself is not really innovative and reminds many of the cult film Coup de foudre à Notting Hill (Notting Hill) (1999) by replacing a bookseller and a movie star by a math teacher who raises his daughter alone and a world famous singer. The big difference here is the magnetic presence of the sublime singer, actress and producer Jennifer Lopez who gives life to a truly endearing character.

Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is a worldwide music star and her song Marry Me in a duet with Bastian (Maluma) whom she is about to marry on stage is a worldwide hit. Meanwhile, divorced math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) is raising his daughter Lou Gilbert (Chloe Coleman) alone and giving all his time to his work and raising his daughter. His friend and colleague Parker Debbs (Sarah Silverman) suggests that Charlie Gilbert and his daughter accompany him to the Kat Valdez concert, which takes a turn for the worse when she, who was supposed to marry Bastian on stage, learns that Bastian has slept with his assistant and decides to marry someone from the audience instead, who turns out to be Charlie Gilbert, who was holding up a big poster with the song Marry Me.  What starts as a knee-jerk reaction gradually turns into a true romance. Coming from two different worlds, many forces will try to put an end to this surreal affair that cleverly asks the question of whether two people from such different worlds can bridge the gap between them and build a true love together. 

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, Marry Me successfully takes up the torch of romantic comedies whose release is cleverly calculated to allow all lovers to discover a perfect film to celebrate this day. Even if the subject and the structural artifices of this one are not innovative, it is necessary to recognize that this adaptation of the graphic novel of Bobby Crosby, written by John Rogers, Tami Sagher and Harper Dill, proves to be as seductive as the presence of Jennifer Lopez on the screen. We also suspect that this complete artist (actress, dancer, singer) succeeds in giving a real psychological thickness to her character as she is a world music star. 

We will appreciate the obvious wink to her own life by learning that her character was previously married three times and then divorced. The many scenes of rehearsals, concerts and dancing (especially in a school class) are all perfectly brought out.  However, and this is where Marry me proves to be a real success is its way to remain permanently realistic, to draw a picture of an artistic environment in which social networks are at the center of the popularity of an artist and in which they give their image to brands to capitalize on the star system. Far from falling into simplistic dialogues and calculated and predictable scenes, Marry me shows a calculated risk to offend some people living in a surreal world of oversized egos. 

Another originality of Marry me is to deal with mathematics and to base the film on a teacher who is passionate about this art and who trains students for a big mathematical contest. This is a change from his romantic comedies with all kinds of rich heirs or soulless businessmen who suddenly see the world differently. The importance of mathematics in the film industry is no longer to be questioned and many films are only content to apply formulas without any real inventiveness showing a real lack of imagination and risk taking. Kait Coiro delivers an excellent romantic comedy that we will see again and again with the same pleasure.

Marry Me
Directed by Kat Coiro
Screenplay by John Roger, Tami Sagher, Harper Dill
Based on Marry Me by Bobby Crosby
Produced by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, John Rogers
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley, Sarah Silverman
Cinematography : Florian Ballhaus
Edited by Michael Berenbaum
Music by John Debney
Production companies : Nuyorican Productions, Perfect World Pictures, Kung Fu Monkey Productions, Belle Hope Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures (United States), Universal Pictures International France (France)
Release date : February 820 2022 (France), February 11, 2022 (United States)
Running time : 112 minutes

Seen on February 11, 2022 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 16 seat B18

Mulder's Mark: