Synopsis:

Jennifer Lopez is Mary Fiore, a successful wedding planner who on the outside looks as if she leads the most romantic of lives. On the inside however, Mary has never found her very own, personal, Mr. Right. Not content to stay in the wedding-planning "trenches" as it were, Mary strikes a bargain with her boss. Should she land the most sought after Nuevo Riche wedding of the decade, her status will go from Wedding planner extraordinare to Partner in the most successful wedding planning firm in California. Remember, that part about Mary never seeming to find Mr. Right? Well,when a tall handsome stranger rescues her from a run in with a runaway trash dumpster, it appears that perhaps her very own romance is about to begin. Unfortunately, her Mr. Right is also the pending Mr. Right for the massive career-changing wedding she's currently planning. The question is: will she squash her feelings about him and push him down the aisle to meet his intended, or, will she throw caution to the wind and take him for herself? And you thought planning a wedding was complicated! All of this makes The Wedding Planner a delightful new entry into the lexicon of romantic comedy.

Audio/Video:

The audio is presented in both a DD2.0 and DD5.1 platform. The audio/dialogue/ambient texturing for the film is far from aggressive so the surrounds and LFE go to supporting the score of the film as well as environmental and directional effects…i.e.…birds chirping, car horns blaring and passing from right to left(directional effect). The dialogue was always clear and easily understood. The Director's Commentary is full of information on the number of re-writes the film went through to get to its final version as well as the Director's impressions on working with Lopez and McConaughey. It also deals with the identifying of certain locations used for the film namely, the Mansion from Dynasty and the audition room from Flashdance. The commentary is full of great anecdotal information and is an easy listening experience. Tech talk is kept to a minimum and the participants seem to really enjoy themselves. The video is a beautiful artifact-free widescreen anamorphically enhanced presentation that has a tremendously broad and rich palette of colors presented. All of the colors are warm and well saturated. The black levels are deep and the fleshtones were accurate.

The DVD:

Columbia Tri-Star has done a decent job in presenting the The wedding planner. While not identified as such, given its extras, it could certainly pass as a Collector's or Special Edition. The menus however, lacked creativity. They were static but easily navigable. The score playing over them would have been nice, as well as some animation in the way of the planner opening to certain pages to allow menu choice selections. That aside, the extras package along with its impeccable transfer clearly makes this a winner for fans of the genre.

Extras:

The extras are:

Deleted Scenes There are seven deleted scenes that can be viewed with or without the Director's Commentary. Either for time or continuity, these shots never made it to the finished product. After six years of re-writes, you can understand why. I found all of the scenes well done and would have liked to have seen them in a more finished state somewhere in the film.

Theatrical Trailers Trailers for the Wedding Planner, My Best Friends' Wedding, U-Turn and Anaconda are included.

Making of Featurette Roughly 3-minutes in length, this making of featurette has smattering of behind-the-scenes shots as well as brief interviews with the cast.

The Dancer and the Cowboy Featurette Even shorter than the making of segment, (2-minutes) this particular portion focuses on two integral scenes within the film. One, involves McConaughey and Lopez in a dance class discussing the predicament they have found themselves in and the other is one wherein Lopez is stuck on a horse gone crazy in one of the more predictable yet funny scenes involving both the Groom and the Bride and her family. Interviews with Both McConaughey and Lopez are featured as well as behind-the-scenes- shots as well.

Overall:

The Wedding Planner is a very fun and cute movie. The visuals regarding the elaborate and ornate weddings featured in the film are nothing short of incredible. Jennifer Lopez is a perfect fit for the film. Not only is she just plain cute in the role, she also (and more importantly)lends a great degree of believability to her portrayal. I found myself enjoying this film and would definitely watch it again. I'm forced to agree with the critics in saying that it's definitely a great date movie, whether you're married or thinking about it! In any event, it's enjoyable enough to spend an evening with either alone or with a date! Recommended