April 6, 2001 12:46: The Wedding Planner
PG
2/5
Feel the need to sit through another wholly-uninspired Hollywood romantic comedy? Well, here's one they knocked out earlier.
It's called The Wedding Planner, it stars Jennifer Lopez no less, and yes, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll have you walking up the aisle all right all the way to the exit door.
So what's the seriously daft premise this time? Well, Lopez has the enthralling job of planning weddings. And she's so good at it, she even writes the best man's speech how's that for dedication?
So, naturally, she lives alone with her laptop, has no life, and can't attract the fellas (yes, this is Jennifer Lopez we're talking about).
And guess what? She only goes and falls in love with a guy who turns out to be the groom at her next wedding. Not expecting that were we?
The real horror of horrors though is in the casting. Matthew McConaughey is the romantic lead and yes, you read that correctly.
With that drawling Southern accent, and an I-could-turn-into-a-redneck-at-any-
time charm, McConaughey's smoothie certainly knows how to make friends and influence people.
He may be a doctor who's supposedly good with kids, but the only thing this guy's got going for him is the fact he rescues her twice, just in case once wasn't enough.
Naturally, with that to blind her, she's hardly going to notice how smug, arrogant and witless he is.
Meanwhile, her Italian dad, obviously not noticing it's the new century, likes the idea of an arranged marriage for his daughter. Wannabe-
fiance Massimo (Justin Chambers), from the old country, gets the opportunity to pester Lopez and generally clown it up.
Presumably, the aim is to convince us how great McConaughey is by comparison, but that just doesn't happen. For all his constant mugging, Massimo seems to know a damn sight more of what he's about than McConaughey's shady character.
Could it be Lopez will see through McConaughey? Could it be the movie is making a point about how idealised love is not always a practical love?
Don't bet on it. Instead it's business as usual, and the movie turns out to be a proper stinker.
