THE GREATEST LOVE STORY NEVER TOLD -- BTS Documentary Defeats the Purpose of Her Ambitious Album Film

Review by Sean Boelman

Jennifer Lopez isn’t exactly known for being humble. While her latest album might make you doubt your presumptions about the artist, the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told reinforces every one of them. If you’ve seen the album film This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, there’s very little value to be derived from seeing the documentary. If you haven’t seen it, there’s even less.

This documentary follows musician Jennifer Lopez as she independently produces a new album and film (This Is Me… Now), which becomes her most personal project yet. This documentary is being billed as the “third piece” of Lopez’s passion project, but instead, it feels like an attempt to milk every bit of money she possibly can out of it.

If you’re a big fan of Lopez’s newest album and its companion film, The Greatest Love Story Never Told has all the information you could want to know about it. This documentary shows everything, from the ideation of the album through casting, choreography, production, and distribution. It shows maybe too much, in fact.

The most entertaining part of the documentary isn’t actually meant to be entertaining — and it’s Ben Affleck’s participation. Affleck clearly does not want to be part of this; he even says so himself. He looks about as happy to be on camera as he does in the meme of him smoking, but he loves his new(-ish) wife, right? So he has to do it to support her… right?

This is perhaps the most damning thing about The Greatest Love Story Never Told. The album film This Is Me… Now: A Love Story was incredibly vulnerable. It did a surprisingly good job of humanizing the diva. In this documentary, she comes across as callous. Lopez desperately wants to paint herself as an auteur. Every choice she makes is brilliant and right, regardless of who it may hurt. Whether it’s revealing private love letters against Affleck’s wishes or pressuring someone to be in her film despite scheduling conflicts, her divalike behavior has never been more apparent.

Worse yet, the documentary isn’t even particularly well-made. The presentation is incredibly straightforward, consisting of a blend of fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes footage and talking head interviews. Most frustrating, though, is the fact that there are several needle drops of popular music that isn’t from Lopez’s new album — including an egregiously obvious use of “Under Pressure.”

At a certain point, one will begin to wonder why they are watching an 85-minute documentary about the making of a mid-length album film that’s only around 50 minutes long. Furthermore, what more is there to learn about Lopez from this that she didn’t already convey in her “tell-all” of an artistic project?

Somehow, The Greatest Love Story Never Told has the exact opposite effect of what it intended to do — you will walk away feeling less appreciation for This Is Me… Now. It’s a shame because (like it or not) Lopez’s latest project is undeniably ambitious and creative. We don’t need this bland ego trip to tell us that.

The Greatest Love Story Never Told streams on Prime Video beginning February 27.

​Rating: 1.5/5