Archive for January, 2010
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Plan on skipping this one. “The Wedding Planner” has all the originality, credibility and wit of a bad TV sitcom. The film boasts a storyline so hoary and wheezy that one could probably trace its antecedents all the way back to that marvelous 1934 classic “It Happened One Night” – if not indeed even further back than that. It’s the oldie about the bride-or-groom-to-be who discovers just at that crucial last moment, when all the guests have gathered for the wedding, that he or she is actually marrying the wrong person and that his or her real, honest-to-God genuine true love is just out there waiting in the wings ready for the taking. “The Wedding Planner” doubles our pleasure by having TWO such disastrous weddings happening at the same time.
Like far too many lazy romantic comedies, “The Wedding Planner” is based on a premise so reeking of incredibility, coincidence and contrivance that any attempt to connect it to the real world vanishes at the outset (and before you accuse me of being an unromantic and of not understanding that suspension of disbelief is an essential ingredient in any film in the romantic comedy genre, I will just point to the brilliant 1967 film “Two For the Road” as evidence that this does not have to be the case). Jennifer Lopez plays Mary Fiore, a hotshot wedding planner so absorbed in the minutiae of her work that she just can’t seem to find the time or the inclination to look for Mr. Right herself. One day she is “rescued” from near-death – in a scene of stultifying stupidity – by a handsome pediatrics doctor named Steve, played by Matthew McConaughey. A feeling of mutual attraction develops between them, which leads to heady complications when, to Mary’s utter amazement (but to no one else’s in the audience), Dr. Steve turns out to be the fiancée of the very woman whose wedding Mary has been planning. As always, the well-intentioned characters struggle with the complexities of the situation, momentarily consider the feelings of their future spouses, then immediately run off and do what’s best for themselves anyway. And why is it that, in situations such as this one, those rejected suitors always turn out to be either so self-absorbed and hateful that we don’t care a bit if they’re hurt by the wedding day turnabout, or so completely self-negating and understanding that they end up happily wishing the newly formed couple bon voyage with the rest of their friends and family? Either way the audience is let off the hook and we are free to root for our two main characters with a clear conscience. Some genres just have hopeless conventions I guess.
One could conceivably overlook the mountain of clichés under which the story lies buried had the film at least managed to bring even a touch of freshness, style and wit to its execution. Instead, we are subjected to an assortment of silly, lowbrow antics such as Mary finding herself on an out-of-control horse so that Steve can ride along and rescue her, or Steve breaking off the genitals of a statue and having to hold the newly glued piece on while talking to a policeman. The dialogue doesn’t help to raise the sophistication level of the film much either.
Where “The Wedding Planner” really falls down, however, is in the performance department. Jennifer Lopez appears to be a reasonably likable and attractive young woman, but she seems hopelessly puerile and amateurish both in her line readings and in her body language. McConaughey is his usual blank self, and virtually every supporting player is forced to indulge in the broadest sort of comic overacting in a desperate attempt to wring at least SOME laughs out of this tired material.
The way I look at it is this: if you have seen “Runaway Bride” – yet another bad romantic comedy – you’ve already seen “The Wedding Planner.” So skip it and rent “Two For the Road” and see what great romantic comedy is really all about!