The Catholic Church teaches that women have more options than being married to a man.  That is not to impugn the institution of marriage, for it is as vital of a Sacrament as any of the rest.  What I am responding to are the regressive stereotypes attached to Christianity that says that the sole path for girls is to grow up into baby factories.  We see these notions in today’s film, The Wedding Planner (2001), and I am here to tell you that there is another way.  If we are being fair, it should also be mentioned that father or motherhood is a likely outcome for any of us, be it in a physical or spiritual sense.  Achieving either is noble, but they are the result of discernment and effort, not simply fulfilling whatever it is society says you should be doing.  Maybe that is taking things too far with this movie, but read on and tell me if you agree.

Seven-year-old Mary Fiore (Courtney Shounia) is far from being The Wedding Planner at that tender age, but she dreams of being married one day.  Yet, her make-believe ceremonies of herself turn out as an adult (Jennifer Lopez) to be planning the events for other people.  The self-training pays off as she is able to coach a bride-to-be through some jitters, while easily handling a myriad of other problems with the help of her assistant, Penny Nicholson (Judy Greer).  Everyone is happy with her work, but she goes home alone to her austere and orderly apartment to watch the Antique Roadshow (1997-present) while eating her dinner.  The loneliness does not seem to bother her as she gets up in the morning to go to the office where she performs the title job for a company run by a woman named Geri (Kathy Najimy).  On the way in, Mary notices a magazine proclaiming the engagement of heiress Fran Donolly (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras).  Sensing an opportunity, Mary proposes that if she can get Fran to use their company’s services for her upcoming nuptials, Mary will be made a partner.  With all this love going around, you might be wondering what Mary’s dating life is like.  A clue would be the fact that she takes part in a Scrabble club with her father, Salvatore Fiore (Alex Rocco), and the rest of his elderly friends.  They are concerned with the fact that she is still single, so much so that dad tries to set her up with a man she had met on a trip to their ancestral Sicilian home as a child named Massimo Lanzetti (Justin Chambers).  Mary is not thrilled by the sudden reintroduction, mainly because her last memory of him is of him eating mud.  Successfully dodging the potential suitor for the moment, the next day Fran is in her office hoping to engage Mary’s services.  Later, while walking down the street and reporting the good news to Penny, her shoe gets stuck on a manhole cover.  As she is trying to dislodge the heal, she does not notice a careening dumpster headed in her direction.  The person who does recognize the danger is Dr. Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey), and he saves Mary from being hit.  Because she soon passes out, he ends up taking her back to the hospital where he works as a pediatrician.  She is smitten from the start, and a panicked Penny finds them in his office and encourages them to go to a movie in the park.  Though Penny is supposed to be at the viewing as well, she promptly makes up an excuse to depart, leaving Dr. Edison and Mary alone.  They are enjoying their time together, with her suggesting that they see each other once more and the evening nearly concludes with a kiss.  It sounds like the beginning of a romance, but when Mary next meets with Fran, the surprise is that he is the new client’s fiancé.  Though he tries his best to explain away what had happened, Mary is furious.  Nonetheless, she vows to remain professional, thinking of the partnership that awaits her with the successful conclusion of this wedding.  She hopes this means she can keep a distance from the day-to-day decisions, but Fran continues to insist on Mary’s presence.  As they tour a potential venue, Massimo shows up claiming to be engaged to Mary.  It is a convenient excuse to defuse the situation, though eventually she confronts the visitor from Italy about the lie.  Still, it is enough to gain Fran’s trust, and she leaves the arrangements with Dr. Edison and Mary for a week as she attends to business back east.  One evening while choosing flowers, Mary unexpectedly runs into her former intended, who is married and pregnant with a former friend.  The run-in does little for Mary’s mental state, and Dr. Edison escorts a drunk planner back to her apartment.  Before saying goodnight, he asks if she ever thinks about the first time they spent together.  Instead, she reminds him about Fran and nothing more comes of the interaction.  Further, despite them agreeing to be friends, Massimo makes another proposal that speaks to Salvatore’s advice about learning to love someone.  Her response is not effusive, but is an “ok” spelled with Scrabble tiles.  Thus, the big day comes for Dr. Edison and Fran, and Mary is on-hand to get everything off without a hitch.  Prior to the official commencement, though, she turns everything over to Penny in order to get to her own ceremony at city hall.  Meanwhile, Dr. Edison finds Fran to talk about what they are about to do.  He says they are different people than when they met, but he is willing to go through with it if she still has that wish.  After a moment’s hesitation, she says no and they part ways amicably.  Upon hearing that Mary had left for her own wedding, Dr. Edison gets to downtown as fast as possible.  However, she has already absconded from her own ceremony.  It is Massimo who points the way to her, and Dr. Edison and Mary dance in the park to another classic film.

Whenever I see a classic film in a modern one like The Wedding Planner, I wonder whether the newer one is trying to make itself look better by including the older one.  It is one of the ways in which the film might have been classed up because this Catholic found himself being somewhat uncomfortable with the way these relationships worked themselves out.  Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of talk about love, and one of the more disappointing statements on the matter comes from Salvatore.  He had been involved in an arranged marriage while living in Italy, and their relationship slowly evolved into something good.  While this practice had once been prevalent in many Catholic countries, it is not one that is recommended by the Church.  Like any other vocation, it should only be entered into after careful, personal discernment.  In an arranged marriage, it is somebody else that is doing that for you.  While outside opinions are helpful, even encouraged, they cannot make the decision.  That should be solely between you, God, and your intended.  Salvatore’s excuse is that there is no such thing as “perfect love.”  That may be true for us mere mortals, but that cannot be applied to Jesus.  To underscore this point, in John 15:13 Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  He perfected this with His passion.  Because He is the source of all love, to not include Him in figuring out whether someone is right for us is not a recipe for success.  Of course, the movie would not agree that this is why things between Dr. Edison and Fran, or Mary and Massimo did not work.  At the same time, that, too, can be seen as a problem.

The main problem with The Wedding Planner, aside from it suggesting that all women should want to have a traditional wedding, is that it is predictable.  You know Dr. Edison and Mary are going to end up together, and until that happens, everything else is window dressing.  The best I can say about it is that it is mostly inoffensive.