Mark Reviews Movies: SHOTGUN WEDDING

Shotgun Wedding, Amazon Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 26, 2023

This isn't to sound like a broken record (although the fact that it continues to need repeating suggests the critique isn't the broken thing), but here's yet another American comedy that mostly relies on talents and charms of its lead actors to succeed. Amidst so many such comedies, though, Shotgun Wedding is a bit smarter about its casting and funnier in general than that observation might imply. This one has a plot, as simplistic as it may be, and a string of complications that make for some dark, violent gags, which probably might feel discomforting if not for the easy charisma of its leads and the depth of the movie's supporting bench.

This is a comedy first, an action movie second, and a romance as an afterthought. That last part is unfortunate, because the chemistry between Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel, as a couple whose destination wedding is crashed by a group of pirates, is convincing enough that seeing them as pair in love throughout might have added a level of sweetness to the proceedings. Instead, their characters are kind of at each other's throats and on each other's backs for most of the movie, adding a forced layer of conflict that really isn't necessary when the whole plot is about pirates taking the guests at a wedding hostage.

Lopez plays Darcy, a successful attorney, and Duhamel plays Tom, a minor league baseball player whose contract recently expired. The two have rented a resort on a private island in the Philippines for their nuptials, and the tension between them is apparent from the start, even before we see the two together for the first time. She just wanted a small affair, ideally an elopement that wouldn't have all of these frills and the pressure of getting family and friends together. He wants the wedding to be big and perfect, though, for reasons involving insecurity that are both sad and sweet.

The screenplay by Mark Hammer sets up this difference because, of course, Darcy and Tom are about to spend a lot of time together—alone and trying to survive, escape from, and outwit a bunch of pirates. Before any of that, though, director Jason Moore offers up a succession of casting choices that surprise and delight.

One by one, we meet Tom's mother Carol, who's played by the reliable scene-stealer Jennifer Coolidge—stealing scenes yet again here with her trademark delivery and perfect comic timing (Tom's father is played by Steve Coulter, who deserves some credit for playing the kind of guy who has spent decades being overshadowed by allowing himself to be overshadowed). Then, there's the other side of the family, where we meet Darcy's divorced mother Renata, played by Sônia Braga with deadpan cynicism, and father Robert, played by Cheech Marin as an uptight millionaire.

Darcy's younger sister, by the way, is played by Callie Hernandez, who's very funny in her dry delivery, and the ebullient D'Arcy Carden plays Robert's younger girlfriend. Even Lenny Kravitz shows up as Darcy's ex-boyfriend Sean, who immediately charms everyone at the party and elevates Tom's insecurity.

The point is that the filmmakers haven't simply coasted by hiring a couple of known, reliable entities as their leads. That helps a lot in this case, because the wedding party has to be at least as interesting and/or funny as the stars and their characters' escapades, given that the story spends a significant amount of time with them as hostages to the pirates. All of these actors, as well as a couple more, ensure that's the case.

The pirates do show up after all these characters and these assorted conflicts have been introduced, with Darcy and Tom separated from the rest of the party as they air out their grievances about having different ideas about the wedding and their relationship in general. With their family and friends held captive at gunpoint at the resort's pool, the maybe-soon-not-to-be-newlyweds go looking for a cellphone signal on the island as the pirates hunt for them, hoping to receive a random from Darcy's wealthy father.

What more is there to say, really? The plot unfolds almost exactly as one might expect, with Darcy and Tom stumbling and bumbling their way into and out of danger, although the levels of threat and actual violence here might come as a bit of a surprise, considering how formulaic everything else about the movie is.

Lopez and Duhamel bicker with aplomb. Beneath the arguments about how best to catch a pirate off-guard and an escalating discussion about how a grenade in Darcy's hand will explode if she lets go of it, there is a nice, sincere connection between the two. It's enough to leave one wondering what that version of this on-screen relationship could have looked like throughout the story, instead of only getting it during the third act—and disappointed that Hammer has stuck to the usual formula of the arguing partners instead.

As entertaining and amusing as the characters and the actors and the comedic setpieces might be at first, Shotgun Wedding does eventually hit the inevitable snag when the same jokes, conflicts, and obstacles are repeated. The movie possesses only a couple of ideas, of course, and while the actors are game and Moore tries to overwhelm that fact with a sense of momentum, the circular nature of both the comedy and the action is inescapable.

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