Charity's Place

THE WEDDING PLANNER

REVIEWED BY BETH FEAKER

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: language, brief crude humor

Rated:

“Your wedding day. It must be glorious. It must be perfect. It must be the most memorable, idyllic and overwhelmingly love-filled occasion of your entire life. And there’s only one person who can make this dream become a glowing reality—the wedding planner.”

The opening scene is a little girl playing wedding with her Barbie dolls. Sweet music is playing as she gathers the bride doll in her arms, telling her not to worry—she and her husband will live happily ever after in their big Barbie house. Then the scene fades out and the camera travels leisurely through the aisles of a big, beautiful church, and Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) is grown up—now a professional wedding planner, coordinating hundreds of weddings and moving her way up the business ladder to unwedded bliss. But the wedding is in a state of panic—it’s about to start and the bride is having second thoughts while her father is no where to be found. So Mary radios to the musicians to keep playing, stops her assistant from flirting with the groomsmen, and finds the F.O.B. (Father Of the Bride) having a nervous breakdown on the stairs.

With a few quick words and popping up a belt full of remedies for anything that could possibly hamper a wedding, he’s as good as new. Mary goes to talk to the bride, and in a romantic speech, Mary reassures her just like she did the Barbie doll from her childhood. Everything will be alright—she and her prince will live happily ever after; and the from then on in Mary’s capable hands the day goes perfectly. Though romantic by day, Mary is busy, practical, and apparently happy with her sweet singleness, eating dinner by herself in front of an Antiques program on TV and competing in chess tournaments at a nursing home, until one day...

Like many other romantic comedies, a freak accident occurs and a handsome stranger notices Mary just in the nick of time to save her life. It so happens her rescuer is Dr. Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey), and Mary’s loveable assistant arranges an outing for the three of them, conveniently leaving Mary and Steve alone to get to know each other. Mary gradually begins to open up to Steve, falling head over heels in love with him and wishing innocently for some romance in her life. Thinking that perhaps her dream has finally come true, the world is made of roses and tinkling crystal until Mary discovers that Steve is the fiancé of her newest client, Fran... and she is actually planning his wedding!

Adding to the comic confusion, Mary’s father is arranging a marriage for her, with a klutzy boy she used to know in Italy named Massimo. Mary refuses, but Massimo has already convinced Steve that he and Mary are engaged, causing both Steve and Mary to think that the other has been giving them the wrong idea. What follows is a hilarious dance through mishaps and miracles, Massimo following Mary around while she is planning Steve and Fran’s wedding. Mary is heartbroken and bewildered, and Steve is trying to stop himself from falling in love with her, but both resign themselves... the wedding must go on! But how can they deny what their hearts truly feel? Or will Mary fall for Massimo, who is sweet and charming and thinks the world of her?

The Wedding Planner is one of the best movies I’ve seen. It’s full of surprises and hilarious scenes, good dialogue and awesome music. The romance is first-rate—my favorite quote being, “I don’t know anything about you. I don’t know if you ever wore contacts or glasses or had braces. But I know every contour of your face, and every fleck of gold in your eyes.” It has some of the sweetest moments in it, and although the ending is a bit rushed, it’s your average romantic ending.

If you like the average you’ll definitely be satisfied, though if you prefer something more you might be slightly disappointed. There’s relatively little to blush over for a movie that’s rated PG13, and I thought it could have easily earned only a PG rating. There’s a moderate amount of language (including a muffled f-word), and Mary comments that when Massimo was a boy he used to ask her if she had a vagina, to which her assistant wittily replies, “Well, maybe he wanted to be a doctor.” Also, Fran absentmindedly asks herself if Steve will be the last man she’ll ever sleep with. The biggest “blusher” is when Mary and Steve are picking out statues for the wedding, and Steve accidentally knocks over a statue of a naked man, causing his private part to break off. As they glue it back on we hear several slang terms for a man’s anatomy. (The guard also apparently thinks Steve is groping the statue.) A few mild gay references pop up. Refreshingly, the characters had several opportunities to be immoral, and they never were! It deserves a thumbs-up for the innocence, the hilarious scenes, and the sweet romance.