"THE WEDDING PLANNER"
(2001) (Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Heavy	None	Heavy	Minor	None
Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Minor	None	None	None	*Heavy
Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Moderate	Minor	Minor	Mild	Minor

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QUICK TAKE:

Romantic Comedy: A professional wedding planner finds that she's fallen for the groom of one of her client pairings and must then deal with his attraction to her while continuing to plan the wedding.

PLOT:

Mary Fiore (JENNIFER LOPEZ) is a busy, professional wedding planner who, despite her success at her occupation, has never been married herself. That's concerned her widowed father, Salvatore (ALEX ROCCO), who's decided to fix her up with Massimo (JUSTIN CHAMBERS), a childhood Italian acquaintance of hers who's best remembered for eating mud as a boy. Pleasant, but seemingly somewhat dimwitted, Massimo mistakenly believes that he's now engaged to Mary who obviously wants nothing to do with him.

Besides, she has bigger fish to fry, especially when she hears that ultra successful Internet entrepreneur Fran Donolly (BRIDGETTE WILSON-SAMPRAS) has announced her recent engagement. Knowing she brings in more money than the rest of her firm's planners, Mary convinces her boss, Geri (KATHY NAJIMY), to promote her to partner if she successfully plans and executes Fran's wedding.

To top it off, a charming and handsome pediatrician has just saved her life, and the romantic sparks immediately fly between them, resulting in a near kiss on a subsequent, unofficial date. Things couldn't seem to be any better until she realizes that the doctor is Steve Edison (MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY), Fran's fiancé. Although she doesn't let the bride to be in on this startling revelation, Mary is furious with Steve, but realizes she must play it cool and keep the wedding on track so that she can get her promotion.

As the three of them plan the wedding along with her assistant, Penny (JUDY GREER) and Fran's parents (JOANNA GLEASON and CHARLES KIMBROUGH), Mary must sort out her feelings for Steve while he does the same regarding her and his pending marriage to Fran.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?

Older preadolescent and teenage girls may want to see it for the romantic comedy/wedding angle, as might fans of anyone who's in the cast.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13

For language and some sexual humor.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

JENNIFER LOPEZ plays a professional wedding planner who's so busy and somewhat scarred from previous relationships that she hasn't had a date in two years. When the man of her dreams turns out to be one of her clients, she must decide between pursuing him (and wrecking a marriage) or marrying another man her father has arranged for her. She gets drunk in one scene.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY plays that client, a pediatrician who finds himself torn between his pending marriage to his college sweetheart and his newfound attraction to Mary.

BRIDGETTE WILSON-SAMPRAS plays his fiancée, a wealthy woman who's not completely sure she wants to marry him due to the many traits he has that annoy her.

JUSTIN CHAMBERS plays Mary's childhood Italian friend and current suitor who believes he's engaged to her.

JUDY GREER plays Mary's manic assistant.

ALEX ROCCO plays Mary's well-intentioned but overbearing father who tries to arrange a marriage for her.

JOANNA GLEASON and CHARLES KIMBROUGH play Fran's parents, the former of which appears to have a drinking problem.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

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Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

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OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

The following is a brief summary of the content found in this PG-13 rated romantic comedy. Profanity consists of a possible "f" word (crowd noise prevented an accurate accounting of this, but it sounded like Penny utters the word), while some other expletives and colorful phrases are also uttered. Some brief and non-explicit, sexually related talk occurs, while a visual joke has a man and woman accidentally knocking the stone penis off a statue and trying to glue it back on.

Various characters have varying degrees of bad attitudes, while one woman is drunk in one scene and another supporting character appears to have a drinking problem. Beyond that, the film's remaining categories have little or nothing in the way of other major objectionable content. Nonetheless, should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for anyone in your home who wishes to see it, you may want to take a closer look at our detailed content listings for more specific examples of what occurs in the film.

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ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE

Mary finds the groom and his groomsmen drinking shots right before a wedding ceremony. She then finds the father of the groom who's either just upset about the wedding and/or somewhat intoxicated because of that.

Mary has wine with dinner.

Various people have champagne at a wedding, including Fran's mother.

People have drinks at a wedding.

Mary and Fran have wine with lunch, with Fran's mother then showing up, commenting about drinking wine while out, and then drinking from Fran's glass.

Later, Fran's mother proudly displays that she has a bottle of wine, but it's Massimo that we then see with it, drinking straight from the bottle.

Massimo has wine with dinner.

After running into her former fiancé, Mary walks down the street with Steve, holding an open beer in one hand and a six-pack in the other, and she's rather drunk. Later, Steve tells her that several aspirin, sleep and a beer in the morning will take care of her pending hangover.

Various people have wine at a birthday party.

Fran's mother drinks wine, and then does so again right before a wedding (where others also drink).

BLOOD/GORE

None.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE

After Steve tells Mary that he learned how to dance in a ballroom class, she jokingly replies, "So you're gay?"

We learn that Steve is engaged to Fran (after going on a "date" with Mary and nearly kissing her). We then learn that he told Fran that he saved an "old lady" when describing Mary to her.

Mary pockets a stone penis that she and Steve accidentally knocked off a statue rather than returning or reporting it.

Some may see Mary's father as having some of both for trying to force her (in a concerned parent type fashion) into an arranged marriage.

Steve states that Fran was an underground bookie in college.

We briefly see Mary's old fiancé and learn that he had a fling with her maid of honor right before their wedding (she found them making out in her car on the night of their rehearsal dinner).

Mary tells Fran a white lie about Steve's feelings toward Fran in order to keep their marriage on track.

FRIGHTENING SCENES

A distracted taxi driver accidentally sideswipes a trash dumpster, sending it careening down a hill where it nearly hits Mary (whose shoe is caught in a manhole cover in its path) before slamming into a parked car (played for laughs, but some might find it a bit suspenseful).

GUNS/WEAPONS

None.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Phrases: "What the hell is this?" "Shut up," "Bastard," "What the hell was I thinking?" "Jackass," "What the hell is your problem?" "Full of crap" and "Who the hell are you?"

Participants at a wedding reception break various dinner plates in celebration of the union.

JUMP SCENES

None.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)

None.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)

None.

PROFANITY

What sounded liked 1 use of the "f' word, as well as at least 1 use of the "s" word, 1 slang term for male genitals ("p*cker"), 8 hells, 2 damns, 1 crap, 11 uses of "Oh my God," 6 of "My God," 3 of "Oh God" and 1 use of "G-damn" as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY

We see a bridesmaid who's upset with the way her dress is fitting up top, and thus handles her clothed breasts while trying to adjust them and the dress.

Mary states that when they were kids, Massimo followed her around, asking if she had a vagina. Later, Massimo tells Steve that he knew Mary long before she had breasts.

After saving Mary by pushing her out of the way of an oncoming trash dumpster, Steve lands on top of her on the street and then stays in that position a bit longer than he should.

While out hunting for a statue for the wedding, Steve and Mary see various classic-style statues, including one that shows a woman's bare breasts. They then come across another full-sized one that shows male full frontal nudity. After they accidentally knock it over, they realize that they've also knocked off the statue's stone penis and testicles (with Mary stating in horror that they've castrated it). They then decide to glue it back on (we see a close-up of it, but it's not particularly graphic or realistic looking), but Steve's hand then gets stuck to it, making it looking like he's groping the statue's crotch. Mary then jokes that for a limestone penis she thought it would be bigger, as she tries to remove it from Steve's hand to which it's still glued.

While confiding in Mary about her uncertainties of marrying Steve, Fran asks herself (in apparent, sudden horror) whether he'll be the last man she ever sleeps with.

SMOKING

A friend/associate of Steve's smokes, while Massimo carries an unlit pipe in one scene.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES

Mary briefly mentions something about when her mother died within the context of a different conversation.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

Mary's father admits to her that his marriage to her mother was of the arranged variety (and that they met on their wedding day).

Steve's actions and behavior (nearly kissing Mary while engaged to Fran and then questioning that pending marriage).

Mary's decision to marry out of compromise rather than love.

VIOLENCE

A distracted taxi driver accidentally sideswipes a trash dumpster, sending it careening down a hill where it nearly hits Mary (whose shoe is caught in a manhole cover in its path) before slamming into a parked car.

Participants at a wedding reception break various dinner plates in celebration of the union.

Mary, Fran and her parents spot Steve and Massimo wrestling outdoors (in a playful, sports way rather than in anger) and Massimo drives himself into Steve quite forcibly.

Reviewed January 23, 2001 / Posted January 26, 2001

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