\n<\/p>\n
At one point during \u201cThis is Me \u2026 Now: A Love Story,\u201d a character observes that watching Jennifer Lopez\u2019s love life is like bingeing \u201cVanderpump Rules\u201d \u2014 eventually you stop judging the people you\u2019re seeing and start judging yourself. But in the case of this self-financed multimedia project, you might also question what exactly it is that you have watched. Is it a movie, a collection of music videos, a simple vanity project? Is it a therapy session, or a new genre entirely \u2014 the therapy musical? Lopez, who co-wrote and produced this 65-minute spectacle, which is now available on Amazon Prime Video, tries to keep you guessing. You might have a few questions. We have some answers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ben Affleck flits in and out of this like a little-seen hummingbird.<\/p>\n
He bookends the story as a lost love, a character called the Biker, but he\u2019s a barely glimpsed mystery. Could that be his jawline? Is that his chest? It\u2019s definitely his voice we hear telling a sleeping Lopez, \u201cYou know how much I love you?\u201d Going incognito to play cable-news pundit Rex Stone, Affleck dons a bad blonde wig, a prosthetic nose and a Trumpian spray tan. He also adopts a folksy accent that recalls Gary Busey, and a delivery that\u2019s part Tucker Carlson and part Keith Olbermann (a man Affleck once memorably mocked on \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a>\u201d). But instead of ranting about politics, ol\u2019 Rexy is concerned with the state of love and connection in the world \u2014 a topic of great interest to Lopez\u2019s character, who is simply called the Artist. He\u2019s the anchor of her love, but she\u2019s barely tuning in.<\/p>\n It might have served the project better to have less of Affleck on the screen and more of him on the page. After all, this is the guy who co-wrote \u201cGood Will Hunting<\/a>\u201d \u2014 one of the best of all therapy movies. Did the real-life Affleck try to encourage his wife to open up, the way Robin Williams\u2019s<\/a> therapist, Sean, wanted his patient to do? Did he urge her to think a little more deeply about love and vulnerability? It\u2019s hard to guess from his mid-credits monologue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yes, we can.<\/p>\n Marriage might be a sacred union that should only be entered into with the utmost care, as Jane Fonda\u2019s character told Lopez\u2019s in \u201cMonster-in-Law<\/a>,\u201d but that didn\u2019t stop either Fonda in that film or Lopez in real life from giving it a try four times.<\/p>\n In the past, Lopez has used her position as a movie producer to comment on her own marital history. In 2002\u2019s \u201cMarry Me<\/a>,\u201d for instance, she played an artist who had been married three times. In this new project, she has a whirlwind rom-com sequence, set to the song \u201cCan\u2019t Get Enough,\u201d in which she cycles through three weddings with three interchangeable husbands (played by Tony Bellissimo, Derek Hough and Trevor Jackson). Could this game of musical grooms be a commentary on her past marriages to Ojani Noa (1997-1998), Cris Judd (2001-2003) and Marc Anthony (2004-2014)?<\/p>\n Other former partners \u2014 from broken engagements and assorted alliances \u2014 are referenced in sequences when she\u2019s tethered to an abusive Libra (\u201cRebound\u201d) and entangled with a much younger guy carrying a gun. (A nod to a famous incident with Sean Combs<\/a> \u2014 or to Casper Smart?) The Artist\u2019s friends take bets on how long each union will last and eventually stage an intervention. They just can\u2019t decide if their pal is addicted to sex, to love or to the wedding-industrial complex. In a therapy mic drop, her shrink (played by Fat Joe) sends her to a support group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lopez dodges that question<\/a>, but Variety<\/a> reports that this three-part multimedia project \u2014 the album, this accompanying visual experience and a forthcoming making-of documentary<\/a>, \u201cThe Greatest Love Story Never Told\u201d (due out Feb. 27) \u2014 cost a cool $20 million. When her original financing plan fell through, she decided to fund it herself \u2014 and she didn\u2019t stint on high-profile guest stars. Her Zodialogical Council includes Jane Fonda (a friend since \u201cMonster-in-Law\u201d), Keke Palmer (also a friend, since \u201cHustlers\u201d), Trevor Noah, Post Malone, Jenifer Lewis, Kim Petras and Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kind of.<\/p>\n Anthropomorphized zodiac signs form a sort of Greek chorus to watch over the Artist, and to add comic relief. (Sofia Vergara says in an end-credit scene that this was \u201cone of the weirdest things I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d) The zodiac signs don\u2019t really do<\/em> anything, such as intervene in the action; they just add vibe. One of them is life coach Jay Shetty<\/a>, who actually presided over the Bennifer 2.0 nuptials.<\/p>\n One of Lopez\u2019s character\u2019s problems \u2014 and maybe J. Lo\u2019s, too \u2014 is that she relies on zodiac signs to determine interpersonal compatibility. (In real life, there have been claims<\/a> that she cut Virgos from dance auditions.)<\/p>\n No, it\u2019s a little different artistically.<\/p>\n Lopez has several genres she wants to play with, and while there are some lovely moments of visual poetry, there aren\u2019t enough for this to qualify as a visual concept album. Or enough insights, either. If you\u2019re hoping that Lopez (or her character) will dig deep in her therapy sessions, you\u2019ll probably be disappointed. The Artist presents herself as someone who is ready to reveal all, but she actually reveals very little, even to herself. Her grand idea of love is about getting<\/em> it, not giving<\/em> it. And in the end, you might wonder, was this really a love story at all?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nCan we play Name That Ex?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Lopez paid how much to film this?!<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
What do you mean, Zodialogical Council? Like astrology?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
So is this Jennifer Lopez\u2019s \u201c<\/strong>Lemonade<\/a><\/strong>?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n