the wedding planner * ( 2001 ) directed by adam shankman . screenplay , pamela falk , michael ellis . photography , julio macat . music , mervyn warren . cast : jennifer lopez ( mary fiore ) , matthew mcconaughey ( steve edison ) bridgette wilson-sampras ( fran donolly ) , justin chambers ( massimo ) , judy greer ( penny ) , alex rocco ( salvatore fiore ) , joanna gleason ( mrs . donolly ) , charles kimbrough ( mr . donolly ) , et al . a sony release . 101 minutes . pg-13 " veni , vidi , vici " said julius caesar , " i came , i saw , i conquered . " re the wedding planner , i came , i saw , i was monumentally bored . after he first reel . in the latter , mary ( lopez ) is the powerhouse top handler in a chic firm of wedding consultants in san francisco . the early sequences are amusing . she runs a wedding with the modern , technological efficiently of a three-star general . self-assured and fully aware of her value to the firm , she is gunning for a partnership . the scenes are fast-moving and fast-talking , like a throwback to classic screwball comedies such as twentieth century , bringing up baby or his girl friday . but her private life , while minutely organized , is empty . then , while planning the highly profitable wedding of heiress fran , in a forced development a street accident causes meeting cute with pediatrician steve ( mcconaughey ) . in a mega-coincidence of the kind that give a bad name to movies , romance raises its head as soon after steve turns out to be is the fiancé of client fran . an unlikely quid pro quo is reinforced by shovelfuls of artificiality in plot , cardboard characters , relationships , antagonisms , side-events . . . another thread has mary's father salvatore ( alex rocco ) , surprise her with the arrival from italy of massimo ( justin chambers ) a childhood playmate . as absurdities escalate , massimo wants to marry mary . his role is useless , gratuitous and plain stupid . his italian as well as his italian-accented english are atrociously false , as are daddy salvatore's . shots , scenes and sequences pile up in a gauche , unintegrated script . the movie is like a cut-up cadaver that they are trying to make whole with stitches . there is no forward movement , no impetus , no suspense , no guessing in all this flab . you can see everything coming from day two as the " developments " increase to himalayan heights of dumbness . in the finale , the lopez character and the pediatrician will be the new couple . predictable . but it makes no sense that she blames herself for having been a control freak . she was simply doing her job . all this is nap-inducing with the force of five tylenol-plus . there's an embarrassment of choices in attributing film guilt to the makers . a first-time director whose trade is choreography ; a novice writer and her inexperienced collaborator ; a regiment of producers , executive producers and co-producers ; a plethora of companies ( the credits read : a sony pictures release of a columbia pictures and interme presentation of a tapestry films/dee gee entertainment/imf production in association with prufrock pictures . ) too many cooks ? the screening of this feature was preceded by three unpromising previews . the wedding planner confirmed that after the mostly awful summer 2000 movies , and after their subsequent replacement by some good films year-end items ( the usual pre-oscar race ) , bad movies are back to reinforce the dismal norms of hollywood . by coincidence , a couple of hours after seeing the wedding planner , i caught on cable gregory nava's 1997 biopic " selena , " with jennifer lopez in the title role . it is about the tejano singer who was murdered in 1995 , at age 23 , just as she was becoming a household name . it is just a good movie --but it feels even better when compared to the wedding planner . a trivial note : fran is played by the former bridgette wilson who married tennis player sampras and now goes under the hyphenated name wildon-sampras . a non-trivial note : for her role lopez was paid 9 million dollars . 
