`The Wedding Planner” feeds on the premise that romantic love is nice and weddings are nice, especially when they involve nice people. It’s not a comedy made for cynics, so let’s take a moment to appreciate what’s nice about it.
The stars are Jennifer Lopez’s compulsive title character, Mary Fiore, and Matthew McConaughey’s charming pediatrician, Steve Edison. And the obstacle to their romantic bliss is Bridgette Wilson-Sampras’ beautiful blond heiress, Fran Donolly — to whom McConaughey is engaged to be married. But while Fran easily could have been caricatured, the film treats her with relative dignity — which makes you feel less certain (well, a bit less certain) that Mary is going to pry Steve away from her.
The costars are appealing performers who bring a relaxed energy to their roles. But “The Wedding Planner” is a romantic comedy that fails in both departments: Lopez and McConaughey aren’t the kind of pairing that makes you think these two fit, and the unfunny script from first-timers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis does little to convince you otherwise.
Mary and Steve “meet cute” when he saves her from a runaway garbage Dumpster and lands on top of her. After he treats her minor aches in his hospital ward, they wind up seeing an old movie outdoors in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. You know that something’s going to throw things off course, and, sure enough, Steve turns out to be the groom in the big ritzy wedding that Mary has just begun to plan.
Old-fashioned comedies, which “The Wedding Planner” aspires to be, often have their fair share of coincidences, but this coincidence doesn’t pave the way for any humorous or emotional payoffs — it just allows us to share Mary and Steve’s discomfort as she plans his wedding.
The movie offers plenty of side characters who work extra hard to show us how colorful they are.
Massimo (Justin Chambers) — one of those wacky young Italian romantics — is under the delusion that Mary, who’s also Italian, wants to marry him. Alex Rocco as Mary’s matchmaking dad, Salvatore — an Old World type who believes in arranged marriages — seems to be auditioning to replace Al Molinaro in those frozen-dinner ads. Judy Greer (the mopey worker of “What Women Want”) apparently had a triple shot of espresso before playing Mary’s co-worker/best friend.
First-time director Adam Shankman has been a music-video choreographer, yet as professionally as he shoots an argument/ballroom dance between Mary and Steve, he can’t give it any zip. The same is true of the movie in general.
“The Wedding Planner” is begging for a madcap set piece to shake it out of its torpor, but the closest thing to a gag involves Krazy Glue and a statue’s penis. Meanwhile, the movie stumbles from cliche to cliche: Like “Miss Congeniality,” it opens with a scene of the lead character as a kid exhibiting her dominant personality trait (young Mary is arranging a Barbie-and-Ken wedding).
The biggest laughs are unintentional. When the movie wants to illustrate the everyday tensions between a couple, one character complains, “It drives me nuts the way he hikes up his pant leg after he’s eaten too much.” And when a character needs to be reassured, she hears this: “Listen to me. You’re exquisite, you’re timeless and you have the love of a man named Steve.”
`THE WEDDING PLANNER’
(star) 1/2
Directed by Adam Shankman; written by Pamela Falk & Michael Ellis; photographed by Julio Macat; edited by Lisa Zeno Churgin; production designed by Bob Ziembicki; music by Mervyn Warren; produced by Peter Abrams, Robert L. Levy, Jennifer Gibgot, Gigi Pritzker, Deborah Del Prete. A Columbia Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:40. MPAA rating: PG-13 (language, some sexual humor).
THE CAST
Mary Fiore …………….. Jennifer Lopez
Steve Edison …………… Matthew McConaughey
Fran Donolly …………… Bridgette Wilson-Sampras
Massimo ……………….. Justin Chambers
Penny …………………. Judy Greer
Salvatore ……………… Alex Rocco
