MARRY ME -- A Lazy Rom-Com With a Far-Fetched Premise

Review by Camden Ferrell

​Kat Coiro has been busy for the last few years, directing episodes of some of the most popular shows on television and even directing the upcoming She-Hulk series for Marvel. However, 2022 also brings us her first feature film in almost a decade. Marry Me is a new romantic comedy film based on Bobby Crosby’s graphic novel of the same name. While it’s nowhere near as poor as its faulty premise suggests, it still doesn’t have the chemistry needed to make its story work.
 
Kat and Bastian are global superstars and a musical power couple. They are promoting their new song, building up to a public wedding for an audience of millions. However, an unexpected event causes Kat to call off the wedding at the last second and impulsively marry a stranger named Charlie, a mild-mannered single dad and math teacher. Admittedly, this premise is farfetched and doesn’t initially seem to have a lot of potential.
 
A weak premise can still be turned into a great movie with the proper writers. Unfortunately, John Rogers and Harper Dill’s screenplay doesn’t do much to improve on the premise. The dialogue is cheesy throughout, and it often lacks the laughs and charm that are necessary to carry a movie like this one. It’s far too predictable, so it needs to bring more to the table to impress audience’s who have seen this story done countless times before. 

The acting is easily the best part of the movie, but it still misses the mark a little too often. The movie is led by Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. They both are known to be talented, and while they have a few cute moments together, they both seem to phone it in for this film. They’re joined by a supporting cast consisting of Sarah Silverman, Maluma, and John Bradley.  All of these actors don’t do anything to elevate their scenes, and they are forgettable at best.
 
One of the things to note about this movie is that nothing about it is actively unpleasant, but the movie doesn’t give you much reason to care about its characters or its stakes. This ultimately feels like a passionless project that is mostly a ploy to promote Lopez and Maluma’s music. Even in that case, there is only one really good song in this movie, but everything else is passable at best.
 
Marry Me isn’t the sweet and charming romance one would hope from a movie coming out Valentine’s weekend, but it’s the one we got anyway. Fans of rom-coms and the musicians involved might find something to enjoy in this joyless story, but most others will find themselves underwhelmed by the same overplayed romance tropes in a nearly two-hour movie.
 
Marry Me is in theaters and streaming on Peacock February 11.
 
Rating: 2.5/5