Marry Me is rom-com gold.
This is coming from someone who doesn’t love rom-coms with all her heart. Yes, I watch them with friends when they want to spend a night in and watch something light. But I don’t actively seek them out because half of them don’t click with me. But there was something about Marry Me that drew me in from the very start. And after watching Marry Me, I’m glad I trusted my instincts.
Marry Me tells the story of a woman who is defined by those around her. Kat Valdez, played by Jennifer Lopez, is defined by her boyfriend, her music, and what people think of her. And despite all that, she continues forward, searching for love and happiness in a world that thinks they already know her. Things take a devastating turn when the love of her life Bastian, played by Maluma, cheats on her and the news is revealed on a public stage.
In a moment of desperation, she locks eyes with Owen Wilson’s Charlie Gilbert and makes a life-altering decision. She will marry him. And Charlie, who sees a human being in pain, accepts her proposal. From here on out…things do get a little cheesy. There’s no denying that when they decide to keep up their ruse and start to get to know each other, with love inevitably following after for both of them.
But what makes Marry Me great, what makes me want to watch this movie over and over again, is how Kat’s character grows individually. Kat finds herself the more she lets go of her past and looks into her future. Personally, that makes for the best romcoms. Sure, finding love and all the cheesy goodness that comes with it is great. But the inner growth is key when accepting the love of another, at least in my book.
Then there’s the fact that some tropes are turned around on their head in Marry Me. Kat is the one in a position of power. She’s the one with the money and the means to make things happen. And that enables her, in a key scene that I will not spoil but still tear up at the cheesy goodness of it all, to make Charlie’s dreams come true and remind him of the best parts of his life, past, present, and his future with Kat.
We can’t talk about Marry Me without talking about Maluma. While he’s been the picture of grace in interviews and posts on Instagram, he’s the villain of the story. And he does an excellent job at it while making it glaringly obvious how men like him are treated in real life. Thank God, Charlie is there to balance him out in the movie and show Kat that there is love, kindness, and honesty out there that can sweep you off your feet and show you love you’ve never experienced before.
Ultimately, Marry Me is the kind of rom-com we’ve been waiting for; one full of love, growth, self-acceptance, and a whole lot of great music that shows how talented Jennifer Lopez and Maluma truly are. And if I, an occasional rom-com watcher, ended up laughing, swooning, and crying over this movie, then so will you.
Marry Me hits theaters and Peacock on February 11, 2022.