“Marry Me,” released on Feb. 11, is filled with an abundance of romance, confusion, and love triangles, which fit right in with its Valentine’s Day-adjacent release. 

“Marry Me” stars Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, and the Columbian singer, Maluma. It is a typical Lopez movie that falls in line with others she starred in such as “The Wedding Planner,” “Maid in Manhattan” and “Monster in Law.” 

All of these movies have a common theme, where the boy meets the girl or vice versa, they fall in love and overcome an obstacle. In the end, they live happily ever after. The only difference from movie to movie is the main character’s occupation or financial situation.

Although this movie is not much different from the others, it is captivating because the entire plot is based on a song, titled, “Marry Me”—very ironic. 

This specific song carries the movie in different directions. It brings the two lovers, Lopez playing Kat Valdez and Maluma playing Bastian, together at the beginning of the movie, but at the same time, tears them apart and brings two strangers together, Valdez and Charlie, played by Wilson. 

This movie embodies real-life struggles that many are put through in a lifetime. 

The beginning of the movie introduces Kat and Bastian who both play pop stars, they are planning to get married and share their vows with a live audience. During their debut, they sang a song they wrote together titled, “Marry Me.”

Moments before Kat goes on the stage, she learns her fiance cheated on her. She goes on stage in a big ballroom dress with her hair and makeup done and makes a speech about love and marriage and explains that she and Bastian will not be getting married. At the end of her speech, she explains she wants to find love and take a risk and she says “yes” to a random guy’s “marry me” poster in the audience. This is when the movie takes off. 

All the media believes she is crazy for getting married to a stranger. Kat makes a decision to stay married until the media forgets about them. With the help of Kat’s team to make their mirage believable to the public eye, the couple participates in publicity stunts. They do normal couple things, like go bowling and out to dinner. However, they are constantly being filmed so the media believes they are happy and the mirage is working. 

After spending so much time together, they start to get to know each other on another level. This causes them to start to fall for each other. She learns he is a single father who works at a local school his daughter goes to and is in charge of the Math Club.

Kat goes to Charlie’s school and helps with the Math Club and gives tips and tricks along with dancing to help them succeed and conquer any stage fright. 

With a turn of events, Kat and Bastian’s song is nominated for an award, which makes them reconnect all over again, leaving Charlie left behind. This leads to the break up of their relationship.

In the end, Kat realizes how much she loves Charlie. She leaves her “Jimmy Kimmel Live” interview with Bastian and flies to Peoria where Charlie is located with his students for a Math competition. She finds him and confesses her love, leaving them happily ever after.

“Marry Me” composes trials and tribulations people go through in relationships. It reaches its viewers on a personal level. Moreover, it has lessons on the importance of accepting people for who they are, not being afraid to go out of your comfort zone, never giving up and always believing. These are a few of many lessons that are sprinkled in to take away. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I appreciated how the song made the movie come to life and how they focus on their lives and careers separately and together. This allowed me to see their two worlds collide together to create one.