Movies Friday, March 5
The Age
Thursday March 4, 2010
The Wedding Planner (2001)Channel Nine, 8.30pmMARY Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) has always had dreams of the perfect man and a blissful marriage, but failing to find the right guy has meant sublimating all her romantic aspirations into her job as a marriage planner. She is the very model of efficiency and charm, the most sought-after matrimonial guru in San Francisco. But one day her shoe gets stuck in a manhole cover and a runaway garbage bin threatens her future. Enter the dashing and handsome hero, Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey), who might just have what it takes to save her in the nick of time and hold her in his arms forever. But, as everyone knows, most soul mates are already entangled with other people when they first meet. Steve has the picture-perfect girlfriend, while Mary is a tragic pawn in her father's penchant for arranged marriages. Many rom-coms have a love triangle, where you have to get rid of one person (usually by revealing them to be a rat) so that the "real" couple can be together forever. This film bravely sets out to get rid of two extraneous lovers. Whether you believe the solutions the scriptwriters have come up with depends on how interested you are in Steve and Mary's story and whether you buy the chemistry between Lopez and McConaughey. And you will, because you feel their love every step of the way. Lopez, often ridiculed for her thespian gifts, is excellent in every scene bar one (where she is drunk outside her apartment), while McConaughey is fine.SCOTT MURRAY
© 2010 The Age