Tag: Owen Wilson

Marry Me

Rated: PGMarry Me

Directed by: Kat Coiro

Screenplay Written by: John Rogers & Tami Sagher, Harper Dill

Based on the Graphic Novel by: Bobby Crosby

Produced by: Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, John Rogers

Executive Produced by: Alex Brown, Willie Mercer, Pamela Thur, J. B. Roberts

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley and Sarah Silverman.

Married three times and about to marry for the forth, super star Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) has written a song with her also-a-super-star fiancé, Bastian (Maluma): Marry Me.

They’re set to sing the song at their wedding recorded live to stream across all platforms to over 20 million people making them the two most famous people on the planet.

And in front of all those people, Kat’s world falls apart when Bastian is posted cheating with her assistant.  She sees the post just before rising onto the stage of her wedding.

Enter, Charlie (Owen Wilson).

Divorced and dad of Lou (Chloe Coleman), math teacher with no criminal record and holding up a sign: Marry Me.

They lock eyes.

OK.

So they get married.  But only for show.  It’s a meltdown, an impulsive moment.  It will pass.  The media frenzy will die down.  It’s just for show.

Until it’s not.

I didn’t think I’d get into this movie, the premise being more than a stretch…  Well, not so much these days?!

And I guess that’s of the point of the film, questioning the idea of getting married.  Falling in love with the idea of the person and not who the person really is but what you want them to be.

There’s some foundation to the idea of these superstar with Jennifer Lopez being a singer and dancer in real life (alongside Latin music star Maluma), so the characters had some cred.

I wasn’t one-hundred percent sold on the Charlie character but he had some good lines, ‘I was, I am a fun guy.’  Tongue in cheek.  He is a likeable guy.  It was more the lack of chemistry between the celebrity singer and normal guy Charlie.

This is a film about getting to know each other rather than a steamy romance.

He is a math teacher who goes to bed at 8pm to read a book.

So it’s more about the relationship and the magic of taking that leap of faith.  A romance that has some chuckles but is more about friendship.

It’s a little like, Notting Hill (1999) with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant where the superstar actress falls for the normal guy.  But stretch that to a massive audience and streamed live on social media.

The formula’s always the same: the unlikely match, to the relationship working, to an obstacle, to taking the leap and overcoming the doubt, to tear jerker moment to heart-warming ending.

I’m admit to some cynicism.

But I kinda got into it with the aging British Bulldog, Tank used well to provoke those warm and fuzzies that will encourage hand holding leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Go on, take that leap of faith.  Or don’t.

Either way, I agree with the sentiment, ‘If you want something different you have to do something different.’

 

Wonder

Rated: PGWonder

Directed by: Stephen Chbosky

Produced by: Todd Lieberman, David Hoberman

Screenplay by: Jack Thorne and Steven Conrad and Stephen Chbosky

Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Izabela Vidovic, Daveed Diggs, Mandy Patinkin.

How would you feel if your appearance caused strangers to gawp, freeze in horror or avert their eyes, so they could pretend they couldn’t see you?

This is Augie Pullman’s world, a 10-year-old boy born with severe facial deformities, about to enter school for the first time. At the school gates with his fiercely loving family, Mum, Isabella (Julia Roberts), Dad, Nate (Owen Wilson) and his teenage sister Via (Izabela Vidovic), Augie hesitates to remove his final shield of anonymity, a space helmet, his final buffer between him, and a schoolyard full of staring children.

Augie accepts that he is different, he just wishes everybody else didn’t have such a hard time with the way he looks.

Based on a New York Times bestseller, Wonder addresses today’s appearance driven culture where one is quick to judge another without making time to look beneath the surface.Wonder

Director Stephen Chbosky refuses to demonize the surface appearance of his characters by using film to shoot Augie and all those in his orbit through multiple viewpoints.

With multiple viewpoints Chbosky chooses not to minimize the severity of Augie’s facial differences, or the value society places on physical appearance.

One stand out scene is in Chbosky’s multiple viewpoint rendering of the bully, Julian, (Bryce Gheisar).

When Julian is called into the Headmaster, Mr Tushman’s (Mandy Patinkin) office to account for allegedly photo shopping Augie as deformed out of their class photo, we are stunned and moved to compassion as Julian’s mother interrupts and presents an unexpected layer to this scene. Julian’s mother unapologetically declares that she photo shopped Augie out as she was sick of her visitors concentrating on the deformed kid in the photo and not seeing her son.Wonder

As Julian’s parent storm out of Mr Tushman’s office, Julian turns back to apologise. As a child with an innocent heart he knows he has done wrong and is genuinely sorry. Without recrimination only heartfelt sadness Mr Tush says, ‘I know you are son’.

There is a lot of heart and transformation within this film and a lot of unbridled joy.

I was captivated by the effervescent joy and connection between Augie and his family.

This is a family everyone would want to be part of. A family whose joy is not metered or seeking approval from anything external to themselves. A family who celebrate each other and their unique differences.

Via says to Augie, ‘Why blend in when you were born to stand out’.

And it is Augie’s self-acceptance that transforms the lives of everyone in this story and everyone watching.

Wonder penetrates as a film about the self-acceptance of our differences and how the choices we make define and expose our truest character.

When we don’t accept ourselves it is easy to judge and put down those who are different from us. Our judgements never define those we judge, they define us.

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