Shotgun Wedding review: Jennifer Lopez retains her romcom crown despite some misfires
Harried and soon-to-be-married JLo and Josh Duhamel face off with dangerous pirates and toxic relatives in a screwball romcom
Film Reviews Jennifer Lopez
Photo: Lionsgate
Many weddings are chaotic, but none more so than in romcoms. The milieu is a playground for misadventure, where highly constructed, hilarity-laden shenanigans ensue easily, leading to heart-rending poignancy once the happy couple inevitably makes it to the altar. While director Jason Moore’s Shotgun Wedding doesn’t mess too much with that formula, its sentiment offers a refreshing spin on the therapeutic benefits of the anxiety-inducing matrimonial process, along with a body count and a satisfying dose of escapism.
Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) are on different pages when it comes to their impending nuptials. Their destination wedding in the Philippines is going pear-shaped fast. Though she would’ve preferred a private, intimate affair, he took the reins on party planning, renting out an exotic island resort for friends and family. The invitees include her screw-up younger sister Jamie (Callie Hernandez), her bitterly divorced mom Renata (Sonia Braga), her billionaire businessman dad Robert (Cheech Marin), and his much younger hippie girlfriend, Harriet (D’Arcy Carden). Also along for the ride are Tom’s gauche parents Larry (Steve Coulter) and Carol (Jennifer Coolidge) and his goofball bestie, Ricky (Desmin Borges). Even though they’re supposed to be celebrating the occasion, the guests’ petty squabbles heap further stress on the happy couple, who feel compelled to mediate.
The engaged lovebirds experience trouble in paradise dealing with last-minute problems—everything from assembling Pinterest-worthy table décor to accommodating a surprise guest: Darcy’s impossibly wealthy and handsome ex-fiancé, Sean (Lenny Kravitz). Worst of all, Darcy wakes up with a case of cold feet on the morning of their special day. As the couple argues and avoids each other on one side of the island, mercenaries descend on the other, taking the guests hostage as they look for the missing-in-action bride and groom. Darcy and Tom are then forced to reunite to rescue their guests while rekindling their love for each other.
Though the filmmakers deliver a lighthearted caper, they package the poignancy differently than other romcoms, which tend to bypass psychological healing in favor of a cloying, cutesy conclusion. The two leads have well-rounded arcs, but Mark Hammer’s screenplay does them a disservice by blatantly telling us their motivations and character traits through dialogue, rather than revealing them through action. Though the narrative has more valleys than peaks thanks to a few contrived reveals, meaningful care is given to Darcy and Tom’s internal and external stakes. The picture retains its buoyant sense of humor as the pair are allotted ample time to work through their grievances with each other and their families while struggling to survive.
Moore and his crew astutely marry below-the-line craftsmanship with delightful narrative nuances whenever possible. We can chart Darcy’s evolution from wilting peacekeeper to no-holds-barred warrior through her changing wardrobe. And as the tulle layers on her voluminous wedding gown shed and shred, so does her proclivity to honor others’ needs before her own. She’s reborn, transformed after a hotel kitchen face-off with baddies in an empowering sequence that spotlights a shrewd collaborative effort between Moore, cinematographer Peter Deming, and costume designer Mitchell Travers.
Lopez, who’s completely at ease in this beloved genre, finds new facets to explore with her heroine. Instead of being capable from the jump (as her characters are in The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, and most recently Marry Me), her protagonist’s journey is centered on discovering her evolving capabilities. Her timing is as precise as ever, humorously riffing after maiming or killing pirates. She also stretches her comedic muscle, playing up the physical comedy intrinsic to the role and blending clever slapstick into the fight choreography. Lopez and Duhamel have good chemistry, demonstrating decent repartee when their characters banter or bicker. Yet it’s Kravitz who fittingly threatens to steal the film from its leading man due to his natural charisma and disarming on-screen sway.
With its fairly compelling core, Shotgun Wedding is a better-than-average action-romcom, if a few rungs below its subgenre cousin, Knight And Day. Although the madcap antics come up short in some areas, and it’s unable to strike a good balance between its main and supporting players, you’ll find it easy to say “I do” to this one.
(Shotgun Wedding premieres on Prime Video January 27)
35 Comments
Love that the last line included where it see the movie. Thanks!
I thought you meant “you’ll find it easy to say “I do” to this one” because, you know……is always welcome.
…and now I’ll bid you adieu!
I still wish that was right in the summary box, but I say that on every review I comment on, so I’m sure it’ll never happen. This is better than nothing.
Are there really that many pirates running around the Philippines?And does Aubrey Plaza know somebody made a movie without her?
I believe that’s the country most heavily represented on the staff of cargo ships. So if people with military experience are best suited to becoming mercenaries/bandits, perhaps all those sailors provide plenty of recruits for pirates. On the other hand, that area isn’t nearly as lawless as the horn of Africa, where plenty of ex-fishermen have taken up piracy.
Yeah in Somalia if you have a boat it’s much more lucrative to be a pirate than fisherman. Risky, but what the fuck.However I don’t imagine too many destination weddings are held anywhere near the horn of Africa.
Yeah in Somalia if you have a boat it’s much more lucrative to be a pirate than fisherman. Risky, but what the fuck.From what I remember seeing a couple of documentaries on the Somali pirates a while back, the start up money is kinda steep and requires some outside investment, but the return can be quite lucrative, even for the guys pulling off the heist. You know, the guys who usually get screwed in these deals despite doing all the heavy lifting.
Cruise ships, too, or at least the one we were on: it was a Hurtigruten cruise in Antarctica, and while the officer staff was almost entirely European (heavily Scandinavian) and American, the rest of the crew were pretty much all Filipino. (And they were great. On the way home, we were at a restaurant in the airport in Buenos Aires, having a meal before our flight, and suddenly someone says “And how is the meal tonight?” and we looked up and it was one of the dining room crew, who happened to be passing by and recognized us. We all chortled.)
I have a friend who used to keep a running map of pirate attacks. I should ask him. But there actually might be! There are a lot of pirate attacks, apparently.
Does everyone in the show business have a younger sister Jamie?
Low hang the head wearing the fucking “romcom crown.”
Every time I see Jennifer Lopez I feel like I should dislike her. I can’t even put my finger on why. But then I always ALWAYS enjoy her. She’s so dang charming.
Have you ever heard that ‘Jenny On The Block’ song? That’s a pretty good reason to dislike her.
Perhaps I as ultimately fooled by the rocks that she’s got!
Is it because she had a little and now she has a lot? Is it because she knows where she comes from? The Bronx?
Just last month there was a bunch of “rudest celebrity you have ever met” stories trending on Twitter and TikTok and JLo was by far the most heavily featured. Unless she was the victim of a truly MASSIVE smear campaign, she is easily Ellen or James Corden levels of abusive to people.
You know, I don’t have a problem believing that? Maybe I had heard that and that’s why I have the underlying desire to dislike. She certainly gives off a diva vibe. She is charming on screen, though. I guess, much like Ellen.
Circumstantial evidence on TikTok and Twitter, you say? Color me compelled
It’s one of those action Romcoms. Romancing the Stone. That recent Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum movie. Where someone wants to kill them and they’re in the jungle. Wackiness ensues.
Janet AND Oscar are in this?!
Glad to hear this is pretty fun! Always happy to see Josh Duhamel. He’s too handsome to waste. Like a poor man’s Timothy Olyphant.
I came here to say the same thing. Duhamel should star in his own show again, but a Lopez movie is a pretty good gig.
I really think Las Vegas would thrive if they rebooted it on a streaming service with Duhamel in the James Caan role.
I agree – so much so that I upvoted both identical comments …
I really think Las Vegas would thrive if they rebooted it on a streaming service with Duhamel in the James Caan role.
“Shotgun Wedding is a better-than-average action-romcom, if a few rungs below its subgenre cousin, Knight And Day.”“Shotgun Wedding” AV Club grade: B-“Knight And Day” AV Club grade: C-I know there’s subjectivity involved, but still.Besides, the yardstick of action romcoms is, and ever shall be, “Romancing The Stone”.
That “Knight and Day” line almost dampened my enthusiasm for this – almost – but then I remembered that this cast has Lenny Kravitz and D’Arcy Carden, so I’m still enthused …Wait, D’Arcy Carden is in this and JLo’s character is called Darcy – that musta been hella confusing on set: “Let’s take that from the last line from the top Darcy – not, not you D’Arcy …”
I have a really weird affinity for Knight and Day. It is not a very good movie, but damn if it is not an enjoyable movie.
Yeah, I really enjoyed Knight and Day. I’m not going to call it a great movie, but Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have charisma to spare.
Lol you think this writer looked up the article for Knight and Day before she wrote this? WAY too much research
Cheech plays JLo’s father – that’s hilarious! Well, on the bright side they didn’t give her white Italian parents like in a few of her other movies …Funny how, I know Jennifer Coolidge isn’t old enough to be Josh Duhamel’s mother, and yet the casting still seems perfect!
She was old enough to bang Shitbrick. Though, I’m not sure he was.
Given Lopez’s age, shouldn’t she be playing the mother character to the wacky woman that the rom-com antics center on?
My god, she’s so old that she’s received her “invitation to join AARP” letter…give it up lady.
Lotta digital ink to spill for a not-great January rom com with JLo. Whoever wrote it fawned on it in probable hopes of churning out more articles for this damned site.