There is a type of love movie, which I call daydreaming love. The story mainly tells a female star and an ordinary man meet each other and fall in love. However, they become uncertain because of giant identical differences between them, and they have no idea whether they can handle the pressure or not. Finally, their love may defeat the reality, or the romance may not win over lives.
This kind of movie doesn't come out every year, but it never stops. The nearest one is Marry Me starring by Jennifer Lopez, and the movie is released this year. Then the previous one should be Notting Hill in 1999, starring Julia Roberts. And another movie in the 1990s could be counted as one of the types. It is The Bodyguard played by Whitney Houston, which owns a soundtrack that swept the world in 1992. Apart from strikingly similar plots, these movies are alike in casting. In other words, the actress who plays the star in the movie must be a superstar in reality.
After watching Marry Me, I couldn't help but feel that nowadays movie scripts are getting worse year by year. JLo can be invited to perform this kind of love story. Is she short of money or too idle? The article refers to spoilers, and you can keep it first if you don't want to read the spoilers.
At the beginning, the female singer Kat and the male singer Bastian plan to get married soon. They plan to hold a concert + wedding which accommodates over 20 million people, and they cooperate singing a new song, Marry Me. At the spot, Kat accidentally finds out a video about Bastian's cheating when they are going to read the vows. Being hurt, she immediately determines to cancel the wedding, and randomly choose a man to marry from the audience.
The stunned man is Charlie. Because of great pressure on the scene, he must cooperate with staff to marry Kat on the stage. Charlie is a divorced father, working as a teacher of math competition in primary school. He isn't familiar with the Internet and even uses an old-fashioned phone. After the wedding, the two privately negotiate that they would separate when the media stops discussing, and the period should be three months. Then Kat would make a domination to Charlie's school. Well, during the period, Charlie should accompany Kat to attend all activities and performances, and deal with the results of Kat's crazy behavior.
The following story should be clear. Like all single people, the two talks to each other and their relationship gets closer. After three months, the female star returns to the stage, and the ordinary man feels lonely. Then, the star suddenly realizes who her true is after reconnecting with Bastian. So, she follows her heart and comes back to Charlie.
It could be said that the plots are the same as Notting Hill, only the two movies are in different ages. In Notting Hill, the star needs to handle with TV, newspaper and magazines. Now, the star in the context of social networks should confront with all the netizens. Other than that, the only difference between the two films is the location and actress. In that case, why people never get tired of watching Notting Hill?
Notting Hill conforms to movies. And Richard Curtis, a well-known British screenwriter, is good at writing romantic comedies. He knows clearly that a good movie should have an impressive character. The audiences are almost ordinary people, and they may not as influential as celebrities, but they do have friends to chat with and have dinner together. They may not be rich, but they do work diligently. What audiences expect is that the ordinary man is on the big screen, and he could be a protagonist through an immersive dreaming experience. So, he creates William Thacker, a funny, kind, but ordinary man.
There are many shots showing the work of the female singer in Marry Me. It tries to compare the luxury of the star and simple life of the man. But I can't get the meaning of this comparison. Telling from the literal sense, these two identities are completely different. Therefore, the audience may be curious about those shots, but they won't be touched. Distinctively, Notting Hill focuses on the ordinary people, and it does not even refer too much about the female star. The daily life in the movie is the same as the lives of the audience. So, we are easily immersed in the plots, and look forward to the fairy tale.
There's no highlight for JLo's performance, but she shouldn't be blamed. After all, she doesn't have too much space for acting in Marry Me. There are many contents referring to social media, such as Tiktok and Instagram. But most of these contents are from the star rather than comments from netizens. Those pleasing comments and emojis are not involved in the movie. Then, I am confused. As a director of online movies, does she really understand the Internet?
Maybe, she could produce a documentary about JLo, when JLo is in her sixty. That might be suitable for her.
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