What is it with John Bradley, aka Game of Thrones’ Samwell Tarly? It’s only February and, when not on a desperate mission to save the world (see Moonfall), the cuddly Mancunian pops up again in romcom Marry Me as surely the nicest music biz suit ever to wield a cellphone. Bradley joins Sarah Silverman in support, dragged along by the whirlwind romance/contractual obligations of Jennifer Lopez’s global superstar Kat and Owen Wilson’s schlubby everyman Charlie.
We can all relate to the situation here: you take your teenage daughter to a mega-concert by her favourite pop diva, do someone a favour by holding a huge ‘Marry Me’ sign and before you know it you’re on stage getting hitched to said musical icon before a livestream audience.
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Or maybe you’re a pop diva, set to marry your musical partner mid-show after performing your new single ‘Marry Me’, when you discover he’s been, uh, “duetting” with his assistant and – as you’re already wearing a wedding dress and crying – you pick out the man holding the ‘Marry Me’ sign, invite him on stage and get hitched before a livestream audience.
Either way, the doors to another world are flung open for both Charlie and Kat, as he negotiates the bizarre zoo of supercelebrity and she, well, she gets to sample the lifestyle of a single-dad inner-city maths teacher. It probably says something terrible about modern times that the former is more recognisable than the latter but that’s partly the point: frothy romcom it may be, but Marry Me asks questions about where we assign worth and whether love can bridge vastly divergent experiences. Whether you want Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson to answer them will depend on your threshold for dewy-eyed emoting and bumbling charm, but both stars have enough pull to get plenty of couples pondering their choices.
In Cinemas February 10. ksa.voxcinemas.com/movies/marry-me
