I was honestly planning on watching something decent this week. Maybe even something especially for awards season. It was all meant to be so good and easy. Then I woke up feeling like death and I couldn’t bring myself to watch a film longer than 90 minutes long. Thankfully, there’d been a film I’d been eyeing up for a while that I knew wouldn’t be too long or too taxing. A film that appeared on the side of every bus that drove past my work for the first part of 2023. I never expected it to be any good but I certainly thought it would be fun. Or, at the very least, a distraction from the sorry state I was in. Watching Jennifer Lopez running around and shooting people wearing a wedding dress? It sounded exactly what I was looking for.
I have a friend who has always loved Ralph Fiennes. I’d never really got on board with him as a concept until Skyfall. But she was always trying to convince me that there was more to him. Maid in Manhattan was always my go-to argument. I mean it’s such a stupid film full of people doing stupid things. And J Lo man. Although, I’ve definitely changed my opinion of her since watching Hustlers. It only seemed fair that I go back and find out if it was as bad as I remembered. Or have I been doing Jenny from the Block a disservice all these years? I doubted it but I did need to find something to watch for tonight and this was there. And, dammit, I love Natasha Richardson. Is it the role she’s remembered for? No, but she’s definitely one of the best things in it.
I’ll be honest, the only reason that I watched this film was because I heard the word Oscars being used in the same sentence as Jennifer Lopez. I couldn’t believe it. Especially after seeing the poster for this film. I wasn’t able to get my head around it. In terms of her acting, I only remember the J Lo of Maid in Manhattan and, well, “Turkey time, gobble gobble”. Oh, and that film where the teenage boy next doors gets her a first edition of The Iliad. An amazing literary blunder. I love it when non-bookish people try and shove bookish things in films. It’s always so obvious they have no clue what they’re talking about. But, I’m going off-topic. J Lo. Oscars. I had to find out it was true. After all, look at what happened with Magic Mike. Matthew Matthew McConaughey got loads of award nominations. Maybe I’ve misjudged her all these years? Or maybe it was just some elaborate joke that I just didn’t understand? Either way, I had to know for sure.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 