I have finally seen the movie while working out at the gym. I can't believe it's been over sixteen years since it's release. The film was set in San Francisco, California (an ideal location for any movie or television series). The scenery is divine especially Golden Gate Park. Jennifer Lopez played Mary Fiore, a wedding planner, who accidentally falls in love with the groom, Steve Edison (Matthew McConaghey) while planning his wedding to Fran Donnolly, a computer businesswoman. The cast is first rate. I loved watching Judy Greer play Penny Nicholson, she was fabulous and underused as an actress. Jennifer Lopez is fine but really miscast in the role anyway. The film is a romantic comedy. The cast included plenty of familiar faces like Charles Kimbrough (Murphy Brown) and Joanna Gleason as Fran's parents. Kathy Najimy as Geri, Mary's boss. Alex Rocco was terrific playing her father, Salvatore. Frances Bay (The Middle) has a small role in this film as well. I love the location shots. It's not a bad film overall but a romantic comedy probably for the female crowd.

Until I came across this film I had no idea that there was such a profession as a "wedding planner"; I had always assumed (obviously naively) that weddings were always planned by the bride and groom themselves or by their parents. The main character of this film, Mary Fiore, is a San Francisco wedding planner who falls in love with Steve, the fiancé of one of her clients, initially without realising who he is.You can work out the rest of the plot from here. Mary and Steve end up marrying one another.You can call that a spoiler if you want. I prefer to call it the inexorable logic of two of the iron laws of romantic comedy.Law One states that there is no obstacle to the happiness of the loving couple that cannot be overcome, however formidable that obstacle might seem. That obstacle can be:-He's rich, she's poor. ("Maid in Manhattan", also starring Jennifer Lopez) He's poor, she's rich. ("Notting Hill"). He's white, she's black. ("Life Size") He's afraid of commitment ("Four Weddings and a Funeral") She's afraid of commitment ("Runaway Bride") He's old enough to be her father. (Innumerable examples) He and she have taken an initial dislike to one another. ("No Reservations ", "You've got Mail", and all the way back to Elizabeth and Darcy in "Pride and Prejudice", if not Beatrice and Benedict in "Much Ado about Nothing") He and she already have one failed marriage to each other behind them. (A popular plot in the thirties and forties- "His Girl Friday", "The Philadelphia Story"- and it still occasionally turns up in modern films like "Sweet Home Alabama"). She's a lesbian. ("Chasing Amy") She's a fruitcake. ("Addicted to Love").Mind you, in that film he's a bit of a fruitcake as well, so perhaps they deserve one another. She's a witch. ("Bewitched") She's a mermaid. ("Splash"). He's human, she's an alien from outer space. ("My Stepmother is an Alien").The above examples will show that there is virtually no objection to marriage which cannot be overcome with the aid of some creative writing. About the only factors which Hollywood still recognises as a Just Cause and Impediment these days are "he's black, she's white" and "she's old enough to be his mother, or nearly so". The first of these may soon go, given an increasingly liberal attitude towards racial matters; the second may take longer to overcome. (It was, of course, the subject- matter of "Prime", but that was a rare example of a rom-com with an unhappy ending). "He's already engaged to someone else" certainly isn't going to deter the scriptwriter.Law Two states that "first name above the title always gets the girl. Or boy". Nobody is going to make a romantic comedy in which an international megastar like J-Lo loses her man to Bridgette Wilson- Sampras, better known as a model than as an actress but best known as the wife of a top tennis player. (Bridgette plays Fran, Steve's original fiancée). And we all know that a leading man like Matthew McConaughey will never be a loser in love if his only rival is an actor as obscure as Justin Chambers. (Justin plays Massimo, the Italian immigrant whom Mary's Italian immigrant father would prefer her to marry).I could just about have overlooked "The Wedding Planner's" utter predictability were it not for the fact that all the main characters are so unsympathetic. Steve is a two-timing love rat. Fran is attractive but rather cold and remote. Massimo is good looking but a bit of an idiot. On the other hand, he is not such an idiot as to deserve the heartless way in which Mary treats him, even though he is quite genuinely in love with her. Quite apart from her behaviour towards Massimo, Mary comes across as a complete airhead, the sort of girl who would rather risk being crushed by a runaway dumpster than abandon one of her precious shoes. (She only survives because Steve is on hand to pull her away).Jennifer Lopez has occasionally turned in decent acting performances in films like "Angel Eyes", "An Unfinished Life" and even "Maid in Manhattan", but too often she falls well short of her best. "The Wedding Planner" is not her worst film- that must be the so-bad-it's-funny "Anaconda"- but among those which I have seen it must vie with "Enough" for the position of next-to-worst. She does not seem to put any effort into her acting, content to stroll through the film with her mind firmly fixed upon her paycheque. She was, for the first but not the last time in her career, nominated for a "Worst Actress" Razzie Award. (To date J-Lo has five Razzie nominations under her belt). None of her colleagues, however, seem to be much better; McConaughey seems very bland and ordinary for a man who supposedly has two beautiful women fighting over him. One reviewer writes that she has never come across a man who likes "The Wedding Planner", which doesn't surprise me at all. What does surprise me is her implication that she has managed to find women who do like it. 3/10

OK so I saw this a few years ago on TV and it was on last night so I decided to watch it because I liked Jennifer Lopez in Maid in Manhattan and I am a hopeless romantic.The wedding planner is about a young woman named Mary Flores(J-Lo) who is an ambitious and hardworking wedding planner who tries to create the perfect wedding for her clients. One day she accidentally gets her hight heel shoe stuck in a manhole and a taxi man drops his ice cream in the car and hits a bin that nearly kills Mary. Suddenly a handsome doctor named Steve(Eddie)Edison comes to sweep her off her feet and to her rescue and she is smitten by him,but the problem is his engaged to be married to another woman who happens to be Mary's clients(Oh No).Anyway while his fiancé goes off for a week Mary spends some more time with Steve and she begins to fall in love with him. Mary of course is supposed to be engaged to Marcello(Justin Chambers who was in Greys Anatomy as Alex who is sporting a fake Italian accent that is so bad you couldn't help but laugh). Of course you know that she ends up with Steve in the end which is so cute yet kinda wrong as she stoled someone else's fiancée who was so stupid she decides to not marry him after and goes off on their honeymoon on their own.I think Hollywood is running out of ideas when it comes to making Romcoms as they are loosely based on the same thing again and again.Having said the above I thought it was a cute Rom com that will have you either loving it or hating it. Matthew McConnaghey was hot in this and J-Lo was a bit wooden in some parts but still she's just acting like the same character again and again.Nothing new here but still worth watching on a lazy afternoon.7/10

Oh I'm angry ! I hate most of Hollywood romantic comedies at the 2000s. And this one gives me no motive to think not ! Mainly it's in the script; seems the classic repetitive mistake in this kind of movies nowadays. Look at the situation, it's old but talented and creatively new this time; wedding planner who has no wedding plane for herself since her love life is empty, then prince charming comes along but he's a groom in one of her "weddings". However, the whole time specifically from the horse problem to the double fiasco of the end's 2 weddings is one big crappy writing. The script didn't care about what's deep down the characters or establishing the idea of commitment or even making some fun thrilling time out of the in-the-nick-of-time-upheaval at the climatic sequence !While watching a scene like the one in which (Matthew McConaughey)'s character is trying to ask his bride "do you really love me ?" I was about to burst laughing indeed, saying "well, this scriptwriter makes everything pretty easy", there is nothing cogent about her alteration after because of this talk ! (why he didn't say it earlier for god's sake ?!!). And (McConaughey) in the same scene even said something like "our days in college.." !! Damn, we didn't know about their history together till now (or after !). And this father's move at the end ?? He's the last one on Earth to object to this fixed marriage, he himself had very successful one, and he didn't show us concern about the opposite way along the whole movie either. His last deed wasn't persuasive, like a move was done by the scriptwriter NOT his character ! Let alone other matters like when the lead was convincing the hesitating bride that she must marry using strange lines like "you're timeless" !! What is that ? The whole scene was corny. And truly as a "romantic comedy" I didn't run into comedy much, it had already some supporting characters and ironic situations that can make laughs but it didn't utilize any.The direction made it kind of smooth movie. The whole time is covered with pellucid diaphanous mantilla. But the music was just sonic comments without a character, being too soft to provocative extent sometimes ! It's obvious how they were using it to veil some weak situations (I wasn't satisfied with matter like the athletic competition between McConaughey and Lopez's alleged fiancé) anyhow, they always think that with cool soundtrack they can get away with it ! Furthermore minor annoying points : (McConaughey)'s hair looks pathetic all the time. (Bridgette Wilson) is not a good actress in the first place. And (Justin Chambers) as (Massimo) was so young for proposing to Lopez, looking 10 years younger than her while he's supposed to be her childhood companion !.I loved the movie's first 20 minutes. Though still the gorgeous presence of (Jennifer Lopez) is the best about it (at least that lasted for the end !). She becomes better actress with every movie, maybe she wasn't the best drunken here, but she managed to do it wholly fine, the thing is that the whole script here was not a fine one originally.The movie finally has one great scene; where (Lopez) got to dance with (McConaughey) that inflaming dance while being honest about their relationship. All the elements (including Lopez and her astonishing beauty, dancing, and that red dress) just collaborated to make such a solid, hot, attractive cinematic moment. Ohh, if only the whole movie was like this !To end my review I only have one very old worn phrase, but the movie forces me to say it : This story has been done so many times before, and better too.