Wedding Planner - verliebt, verlobt, verplant

The Wedding Planner tells an identifiable story about falling in love and failing to recognize it.

The Wedding Planner stars Jennifer Lopez as Mary Fiore, a hardworking, beautiful, single woman of Italian descent, who has made a reputable career as a wedding planner. Fully dedicated to her work, Mary successfully coordinates all the details of her wealthy clients' weddings. She even acts as a kind of therapist, transmitting to the brides and grooms-to-be the optimism that relieves them of their "second-thoughts", and that allows them to fulfill their true dreams of marrying. Yet one day, a literal "faux pas" turns Mary's orderly life upside-down: she walks across a street and gets her shoe stuck in a manhole. Just then, a dumpster menacingly rolls down the steep San Francisco street, towards her. Noticing that the dumpster is rapidly gaining speed, a young man rushes to help Mary out of her dilemma. The two are instantly enveloped by the rush of the moment, falling victims to love at first sight. Soon, however, fate shows its cruel side, proving that the handsome Steve Edison (Mathew McConaughey) is tied to Fran Donelly (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), one of Mary's most promising clients. In the meantime Salvatore (Alex Rocco), Mary's concerned father, tries to inspire her to consider her childhood inamorato Massimo (Justin Chambers), who just arrived from Italy. Torn between acting sensibly and fulfilling her long suppressed dreams of marrying, Mary must first determine which love is the one destined for her.

The Wedding Planner exploits the physical beauty of its star (Lopez) and emphasizes her character's style and professionalism at work, while defining her personality as that of a free-spirited, down-to-earth person who enjoys dancing and playing Bingo with her father and his elderly friends. Similarly, her costar (McConaughey) is depicted as a good-looking, sensitive man who enjoys his work as a pediatrician. However, the film's secondary characters, especially Mary's family, friends and coworkers, are sketchy and mostly inconsequential. Thus, The Wedding Planner creates a story that solely revolves around the coupling of its two main characters; a choice which makes The Wedding Planner's plot extremely predictable, although at times amusing. While the plot complications are limited to the unavailability of either of the two main characters (where Steve is unable to abandon his prior commitments and Mary is ready to take up new ones), The Wedding Planner is most enjoyable when it creates romantic settings for its lovesick characters.

True, "The Wedding Planner" does have its share of cinematic conceits. Just watching the previews, you pretty much have a good idea what's going to happen in the end. But unlike many romantic comedies, this is not predictable by the minute. The characters are likable and charming, and you get quite engrossed in them. The actors are charming as well. Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McCoughnahey are equally good and have a fine chemistry. The scenes, in general, are handled in a sweet-natured fashion without becoming nauseatingly sentimental. The opening scene is very original and made me laugh. In the first scene, we get an idea of how Mary (Lopez) plans her weddings, staging them like a secret service operation, strapping wires to the bride and groom, feeding them suggestions as they walk down the aisle and making sure all the guests are in order pronto. There are certain moments of "sitcom stupidity." There's a scene where Steve (McCoughnahey) gets his hand stuck to a statue's privates. The comedy was badly timed and the scene appeared quite lame. A similar joke was used in Rodney Dangerfield's "Meet Wally Sparks," but was done in a much more structured manner and spawned hilarious results. About the member of the cast who I felt was a little hammy was Alex Rocco as Mary's Sicilian father. His accent comes and goes, and in some scenes he struggles so much with it that he starts talking like someone with down syndrome. Fred Willard has a short but funny, scene-stealing role (when hasn't Willard stolen the show?) as a ballroom dance teacher. There are some moments in the plot that are forced and created simply to move the film along, so we can quickly arrive at the "juicy climax." One of the subplots involves Mary's father trying to fix his daughter up with this silly, thick-accented Sicilian cassanova. He wants her to get married to him, but she refuses. Throughout the film, they don't seem to have any more than a friendly bond. Yet later in the film, he makes a sweet proposal and Mary actually agrees to marry him. The ending is far-fetched and over-the-top, and though I can't discuss it you've probably seen this ending before. One thing I have to credit the writers for is refusing to make Fran (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras--Man, is she sooooo beautiful!!!) a total b**ch, like they would in most films of a similiar plot. The way the formula goes is the guy's engaged this girl, while another girl captures his heart. But the girl he's engaged to is usually so unlikable that you wonder why he wanted to marry her in the first place. I'm glad they didn't take that cheap route. Even Fran has a certain charm to her character. The charming characters and the charming actors are really what makes this movie worth seeing. Yes, it's pretty much (though less than usual) a formula romantic comedy, but a likable one because of the way we're captured by the people on screen. This is not a great film, it has its dull moments, it has its silly moments, but it's often a fun and pleasant movie experience. You'll fall in love with "The Wedding Planner."

My score: 7 (out of 10)

This is a JLO romantic comedy. Make no mistake this movie defines the term "by the numbers". It is predictable to a tee, has the typical "formula" plot and sticks to it rigorously. BUT then again-if your looking for a piece of predictable fluff.... you could do worse.

This maybe predictable but it IS at times mildly entertaining. At lease this is watchable and kind of cute-Although you never believe for a moment that Jennifer Lopez character is anyone other then JLO at least the movie doesn't drag as with a lot of movies of this "formula genre" as I like to call them. It's an entertaining(mildly) way to pass an hour or two-I'd give this 6 out of 10.

"The Wedding Planner" is just another romantic comedy, and just another one starring Jennifer Lopez, and just another one starring Matthew McConaughey. As I have said before, Jennifer Lopez has such a beautiful feminine figure that I would prefer to see her as the romantic lead as opposed to most other Hollywood actresses working today. McConaughey is of course sexy with a laid-back charm, but that's just who he is.

This particular romantic comedy isn't all that funny, but the writers did seem to know which elements were necessary and included them. We find out McConaughey's secret the same time Lopez does, which is good because it helps us identify with our main heroine and we don't have to sit uncomfortably before the characters do. They also gave us another man - he's supposed to provide comic relief, and I did at least enjoy him. We also need to dislike the fiancée. Cast Bridgette Wilson and make her a stuck-up snob, so that is easily accomplished.

One thing that I found that "The Wedding Planner" has over lesser romantic comedies, is genuine chemistry between the leads. Although it's certainly lacking in the comedy, I found the romance tangible.

I know of a lot of people who don't really like her movies but I am one of those people that do. Every movie I have seen with her in it has been great! This one was no exception. I highly recommend it but only if you like the "corny" (as some say) romantic comedies. If you love movies like Runaway Bride, you'll love this one, I promise.