Shotgun Wedding

After The Wedding Planner, Monster-in-Law and last year’s Marry Me, Jennifer Lopez stars in another matrimonially themed romantic comedy and – spoiler alert – Shotgun Wedding is by far the worst of the tetralogy.

The plot is the following: Darcy and Tom have invited both families and friends to their destination wedding in the Philippines, leading to friction among the happy couple. While the betrothed are arguing pre-ceremony, their entire party is taken hostage by a group of pirates. 

What a shame that instead of using the momentum after being in talks of an Oscar nomination for her work in Hustlers – perhaps even seizing the snub to raise the ante – Lopez decided to disappear into indistinguishable projects. But while one may rightfully point out that she was “just playing herself” in Marry Me, her role in Shotgun Wedding barely even qualifies as a character at all. The script doesn’t care who Darcy is, what she wants, whatever she might see in Tom, and only passes the Bechdel test because she and her bridesmaid discuss her hair-do.

Despite looking perpetually gorgeous after multiple attempts on their lives, there is no magnetism of any kind between Lopez and her co-star Josh Duhamel, and both seem to phone in their dialogue with as little effort as possible. Perhaps Tom’s meagre story arc would have come across as marginally less ill-fitting had the role been played by Armie Hammer as originally intended – at the very least this would have offered a benevolent distraction from the overall mess of this production.

The film’s guest stars include the likes of Sônia Braga, Lenny Kravitz and recent Golden Globe-winner Jennifer Coolidge, but not a single one is given the scope to make any sort of impact and every attempt at a punchline only draws a painful cringe from the viewer.

Perhaps the funniest part of the movie is that (being released in the same climate as Triangle of Sadness, The Menu and Glass Onion to name a few), Shotgun Wedding in all honesty presumes that audiences can relate to and will root for the millionaires who have come to this island to exploit the cheap labour.

Selina Sondermann

Shotgun Wedding is released on Amazon Prime Video on 27^th January 2023.

Watch the trailer for Shotgun Wedding here: