Universal is one of the few studios still making rom-com’s on an occasional basis. Their latest, Marry Me, is based upon a web Graphic Novel (http://marryme.keenspot.com/) and stars Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson and Sarah Silverman.

I’m not going to spoil this because it just came out, but by the same token, if you’ve seen Notting Hill…you’ve seen this movie. In fact, if you even know what rom-com means, you’ve seen this movie. There are very few surprises here, but frankly that is not what you are looking for if you see this movie.

The basic plot is simple and you can glean easily from the trailers. A reluctant Owen Wilson goes to a Jennifer Lopez concert. She is going to have this big pop-diva concert at the end of which she is getting married to a pop star dude Bastian, played by a sympathetic Maluma. As you can guess, he cheats on her and the plan changes. Obviously, when you decide to not marry some scummy cheater, you randomly pick a guy out of the crowd and decide to marry him instead. Yeah, he’s holding a “Marry Me” sign, but then again so is half the audience.

This concept is batshit crazy and preposterous…but who cares? 

Wilson, of course, is divorced with a kid. Why? Because kids are cute and we need him available. J-Lo has plowed through a number of husbands, it turns out, but if you are pop diva; that’s typical. Actually, this is what I think motivates her to marry on a whim, since by this time, marriage is casual for her.

Like the recent remake of Overboard, they emphasize J-Lo’s ethnicity and insert Spanish dialogue on occasion…thus including this important film going demographic and a big part of J-Lo’s fan base. Unlike Overboard, it doesn’t seem shoe-horned in here, but a more natural part of the story.

The fallacy of funny men able to impress gorgeous women is reinforced here. Though is Wilson funny or charming? I think he is for depression what Woody Allen is for anxiety. 

Unlike Notting Hill, which is frankly a superior film primarily because you get Hugh Grant instead of Wilson, this one really looks at today’s hype machine which is social media. It makes sense because celebrity has changed so much since the previous film and really a lot of that aspect of the film works rather well. Unfortunately, though, John Bradley (you know him as Samwell Tardy in Game of Thrones) is given terrible material here to be the manager for J-Lo. He should have been a laugh generator…his character is meant to be comedic, but he’s not given any funny lines or any funny characteristics. He’s fairly drawn like they don’t want to make him a caricature…instead they made him mundane and boring. He’s a good actor and this is a complete waste. Sarah Silverman, by contrast, as Wilson’s wise cracking lesbian friend, is able to muster a few laughs throughout. 

But I think even she was probably watered down. After watching the film, I started the Web comic, and I could see that character being much more of a fun character had they kept closer to the material in that regard. Actually reading the comic just showed me how far the Hollywood writers here “standardized” the story into a standard rom-com.

Chloe Coleman (from My Spy) is racking up her child actor miles while she still can and does a capable job as the embarrassed daughter that suddenly has a dad with the coolest new wife she could dream of. Even this, though, seems watered down. The kid doesn’t try to get expensive gifts from her, or resent her for not being her mother, or somehow become more embarrassed…no, she is just chill with it.

The most loathsome watering down, however, is Bastian the cheater’s portrayal. They don’t villainize this scumball at all. Now, I thought this was to make him a viable rival for Wilson, but I don’t think they stuck the landing there. Really, in the film, he basically gets off the hook completely while J-Lo’s character is ostracized for going into a spontaneous nuptial. What the heck?

That being said, it is a talented cast even if they were given a very, very non-edgy, completely safe script. And there are some surprises. Jimmy Fallon, in a cameo, actually gets a funny line. I’ve been waiting years for that to happen on his TV show, so that was a welcome event. Another surprise is they explore “Mathletes” (scholastic math competitions) without making them the object of ridicule and scorn. To a certain extent, this is just part of this film just being so ridiculously nice about everything, but this I found a welcome change. It was just such a wide open target and they decided to let it pass.

For a good time in the movie house, I don’t know that I would recommend it at those prices. However, once it starts streaming, you should get on this like cheese on a pizza. And just like said cheese, you should find it tasty. Just don’t expect it to have too much spice…but at least it will be easy to digest.

Marry Me is currently available on Peacock.

Grade: B+