Today’s quick review: The Wedding Planner. Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez), a punctilious wedding planner, meets the man of her dreams when Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey), a handsome pediatrician, saves her from a nasty accident. But just as their relationship is starting to bloom, Mary learns that Steve is actually the fiance of Fran Donolly (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), Mary’s latest client.
The Wedding Planner is a romantic comedy about a wedding planner caught between her heart and her job. Still nursing the wounds from an old breakup, Mary dares to open up again, only to find that the man she’s in love with is already taken. The Wedding Planner features a fine premise and a decent cast, but it fails to capitalize on its assets. Mediocre plot work and chemistry keep it from standing up to the best the genre has to offer.
The Wedding Planner gets the character of Mary right but does not tell the right story about her. Mary is precise, polite, and controlling, traits that make her excellent at her job but cut her off from the prospect of romance. Her infatuation with Steve is the perfect opportunity for her to open up, but the movie never forces her to. Instead, she struggles but hardly grows, navigating a crisis but not being shaped by it.
Much of this has to do with the way The Wedding Planner handles Steve. Steve starts out as the perfect man, then dwindles as he gets wrapped up in wedding preparations and his own conflicting feelings towards Mary. Given the chance to be more proactive and establish real chemistry with Mary, Steve could have been the lynchpin holding the movie together. As it stands, Matthew McConaughey’s talents are not used to their fullest.
Even with these flaws, The Wedding Planner goes through the motions well enough. The love triangle has an unusual quality to it, both because Steve does not tell Mary about his engagement right away and because Mary has a strong professional interest in making sure Fran gets married. The plot has enough wrinkles to be engaging. And while the characters are not a major hit, they are enough to carry the story across the finish line.
The Wedding Planner is a decent pick if you are a fan of romantic comedies and are looking for a minor variation on the formula. Although the movie misplays its hand in a couple of key ways, it gets enough right to be worthwhile for the right viewer. Critical viewers would do better looking elsewhere.
For a more spirited romantic comedy with Matthew McConaughey, try Fool’s Gold. For a crime comedy with a hefty dose of romance starring Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney, try Out of Sight. For another romantic comedy about a love triangle that threatens to disrupt a wedding, try Made of Honor or My Best Friend’s Weddding.
[5.4 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209475/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for a basic but enjoyable romance.