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Wedding Planner, The
Sony Pictures Entertainment


6.8

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language and some sexual humor

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Justin Chambers, Bridgette Wilson, Judy Greer, and Alex Rocco

Jennifer Lopez plays San Francisco's most successful supplier of romance and glamour. She knows all the tricks. She knows all the rules. But then she breaks the most important rule of all: she falls in love with the groom, Matthew McConaughey. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Pamela Falk Michael Ellis
DIRECTED BY:	Adam Shankman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 3, 2001 Video: July 3, 2001 Theatrical: January 26, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

At its best when it employs the conventions of romantic comedies to satirize them through the eyes of an anti-romantic wedding planner.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The unevenness of what surrounds the star couple is indicative of the script's inability to muster anything more than intermittent sophistication.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The picture is never less than pleasant -- but it's not more than that often enough.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A chaste, lively and mildly goofy romance to dispel the winter blahs.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The Wedding Planner dissolves into a mopey, leaden romance that piles on the contrivances before limping to its foregone -- and rote -- conclusion.

Slate David Edelstein

The preview—if that's truly what it is—has a beginning, a middle, and an end; a host of good lines; and so many goofy surprises that it's hard to believe that there's anything more to see in the picture itself. I mean … they wouldn't show you the entire movie in the coming attraction, would they?

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Simply not up to the task.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Manages to do the impossible: It makes Lopez bland.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A plot like this is so hopeless that only acting can redeem it. Lopez pulls her share of the load, looking geuninely smitten by this guy and convincingly crushed when his secret is revealed. But McConaughey is not the right actor for this material.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

An out of date 1950s movie.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

As weak a star vehicle as Hollywood has cranked out this millennium.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Lopez is fine, sometimes quite funny, but she's better playing the take-no-prisoners planner than a goofy, insecure dork.

Film.com Robert Horton

She (Lopez) wipes away the unpleasant memories of "The Cell," and serves notice to Julia and Sandra that there's another girl out there who can do romantic comedy-even of the half-baked variety.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

The Wedding Planner achieves the dubious but perversely impressive feat, for its 90-minute duration, of neutering Jennifer Lopez.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Dopey but charming.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

I suggest you RSVP in the negative to this "Wedding" invitation, unless you consider yourself a friend of the obvious bride to be, Ms. Lopez. But even then, you'll have to focus on her presence, rather than the silly ceremony around her.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Stumbles from cliche to cliche:

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis aim for the soufflé-style comedy audiences ate up greedily 40 years ago, but the film falls flat.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Has a lot of nerve making fun of Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You," as the choice of newlyweds fated for divorce in 12 to 14 months. The Wedding Planner should have such a shelf life.

USA Today Mike Clark

Don't buy a ticket for this one, even if the theater is having a fire sale on Raisinets.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The film's greatest flaw is its miscast leads, who conjure up zero dewy-eyed, wish-fulfillment magic.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

It's like watching two superbly conditioned rowers try to race a boat made of folded newspaper. Hard as they work, they just can't make it go any faster.

Variety Robert Koehler

This tale of mismatched lovebirds begins with considerable charm but eventually loses its winning ways with an excess of ridiculous elements.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Think "My Best Friend's Wedding," subtract gay best friend, dorky karaoke scene, charm, and any hint of malice or conflict, and you've got it.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

That rare, unfortunate thing, a total misfire of a movie.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The best thing about a movie as silly as this is that it makes such modest demands on your attention. As the story unfolded with all the energy of California in a Stage 3 alert, I staved off brain death by trying to imagine an alternate version.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The blandness of The Wedding Planner burlap-sacks their appeal in an altogether dowdy outing for two stars who deserve much snazzier threads.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Director Shankman has diligently studied the forms and reproduced the moves of the screwball romances he so clearly loves, but he simply hasn't the chops to put together even a decent rip-off of those glittering jewels of the '30s and '40s, which depend on great writing, classy situation comedy and, above all, chemistry.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Frankly, it's excruciating to watch.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a3:
No feel-good film here. "The Wedding Planner" is refreshingly dour in tone. It avoids the cliche of the two parties not getting their story straight when a friend or relative asks; for example, "Where did the two of you meet?" Debra Messing doesn't repeat her sitcom character, or Meg Ryan-out like a moonbeam. She's quite good. The problem is, however, Messing and Dermot Mulroney have absolutely no chemistry together. He doesn't have to be a jungle cat like Rupert Everett in "My Best Friend's Wedding", but, c'mon, he plays a man-ho who got his degree in comparative literature from Brown? There's also a reconciliation late in the film that absolutely rings false. You get the feeling that the screenplay by Dana Fox was tampered with. On the plane, Kat tells Nick(Mulroney) on the plane that her family is unredeemable, and sure enough, Kat's mother(Holland Taylor) says some unbelievable hurtful things about her daughter's broken engagement at the rehearsal. It rings false when "The Wedding Date" ends on such a happy note because the film doesn't really earn it.

Andrew M gave it a 3:
Not the right vehicle for Lopez and McConaughey...in fact not the right vehicle for anyone! Just about everything about this film is weak. There are no true, redeeming strengths. Apart from a few (very few) palatable moments, the whole film is numbing, dumbing and lumbering. I love McConaughey as an actor, he can be quite brilliant. Lopez, I normally find very easy and comfortable to watch too. Both stars in this defective wreck are like sheep minus the flock...lost and scrambled. Much like the people's brains behind this tomato! Aviod it unless you dabble in a little masochism.

Kim K. gave it a 10:
I absolutely love this movie AND Jennifer Lopez. I could watch this movie all day long!

Sam M. gave it a 10:
Fantablous.

Hannah G. gave it a 10:
I just love this movie and I'll love it forever. I didn't love J. Lopez before but she was sweet in this movie, not self-confident as she seems in another way.... I hate those "clever" journalists who know that "this will be an unless film" before they see it...or hope it'll be that...

Fanz20 D. gave it a 10:
I dont know where all of you get off saying this movie sucked, I thought it was AWESOME!!!!! You could feel the tension between Mary and Steve from the beginning. Please don't say this could never happen, because love could happen like this, I have seen it. I thought Jlo and Matthew were a GOOD couple in this movie. It's disappointing to hear critics say that this was not a part Jlo fit to play, who said that jlo has to play 1 character all the time in every movie, there is room to expand you know. I LOVED THIS MOVIE! I GIVE IT A BIG 10!!! I have watched it 5 times.. it's better then blood and gore and sad enough critics give 10 to those violent movies, whatever!!!!

Rosalie B. gave it a 10:
Loved Matthew. Such realism is rearly found. I bought the movie to watch at home. Great job by both Matthew and Jennifer.

Wedding Planner, The Sony Pictures Entertainment

Wedding Planner, The
Sony Pictures Entertainment