Charming Yet Vapid Rom-Com Shotgun Wedding Is Tropical Comfort Food
What does it mean that the three greatest romantic comedy stars of our time have all recently revived the genre in movies that take place on a tropical island? Is there a film school graduate student who can research and report on this extremely important topic? Sandra Bullock headlined The Lost City about a romance novelist who, along with her cover model (Channing Tatum), encounters a crazed billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) in an ancient city. Julia Roberts and George Clooney sparred as exes whose daughter is getting married in Bali in Ticket to Paradise. And now Jennifer Lopez stars opposite Josh Duhamel in Shotgun Wedding, as a couple whose glam island wedding is upended by pirates. Already the movie is off to a completely relatable start!
Darcy (Lopez) and Tom (Duhamel) have invited all their family and friends for a destination wedding at a luxury resort in the Philippines. In a nice flip of the cliché, it’s Tom who has turned into a groomzilla, wanting everything to be absolutely perfect. Tom is all about Etsy and pineapple centerpieces and very unfortunate cocktail napkins with Darcy and Tom’s face on them. “You got so fixated on the wedding, you turned into a different person,” Darcy tells him. Tom, it seems, has forgotten that her love don’t cost a thing.
It’s not polite to discuss someone’s age, but Lopez is over 50 and is playing the bride—I’m so glad we are past the point in our pop culture where the only choice for a woman over 40 is to play a dowdy grandma. Of course, Lopez isn’t just anyone and, let’s be honest, looks better than most of us did when we were 20, but still: Progress! While there are references to how Darcy is “not some blushing bride” and how she definitely doesn’t need a wedding registry (“I have my things already. I like my things!”), it’s not a huge plot point in the movie, more of an accepted fact. Who knows why Darcy and Tom are getting married later in life, and who cares? I love that this is a non-issue. Of course, it does once again bring to light that we don’t yet have the next generation of rom-com stars.
While Mark Hammer’s script has a few zingers, it’s the stacked supporting cast that makes the movie pop. Tom’s mom Carol (Jennifer Coolidge) is thrilled to be visiting an island, while his videotaping dad Larry (Steve Coulter) just wants to make sure his wife is happy. It’s a little hard to believe the ever-fabulous Coolidge could ever be unworldly, but when she keeps telling Darcy things like “Hi, it’s your future mother-in-law Carol,” you can’t help but laugh.
Cheech Marin and Sonia Braga are Darcy’s divorced parents Robert and Renata. The extremely wealthy Robert has brought his new, annoying girlfriend Harriet (D’Arcy Carden). “This place is teeming with energetic vibrations,” Harriet announces. There’s also Tom’s needy best friend Ricky (Desmin Borges) and Darcy’s sardonic younger sister Jamie (Callie Hernandez). Things really start to get interesting when Lenny Kravitz shows up as Darcy’s ex-fiancé. Kravitz is clearly having an absolute blast. “Looks like he was in a rush and forgot to button his shirt all the way up,” Tom says when he sees him. Darcy and Tom are already struggling with their different ideas of how their wedding should go, but must set their squabbles aside once the wedding is attacked by pirates trying to extort Robert.