Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“I know, you feel like nobody gets you”
“I don’t even get me”
And that’s probably the most honest exchange that takes place in “This Is Me… Now”, where Jennifer Lopez’s character admits she doesn’t even understand herself. She basically sums up what she was trying to do with this musical – whatever she feels like, albeit cluelessly.
It’s a good thing that it’s only one hour long, because “This Is Me… Now” is like a long extravagant album ad, with a whole lot of singing and dancing, with a few dialogues strung in between to give it the ‘movie’ tag. If you really must know what the plot is – Jennifer Lopez AKA JLo plays a character simply known as ‘the artist’, who is constantly rushing into relationships. After three divorces, her therapist fires her (yes, that can happen, happened to somebody I know), and her friends try to hold an intervention to give her a reality check. So she introspects and goes on the path of ‘self-love’.
If you’ve seen the trailer for “This Is Me… Now”, you may (or may not) remember that the teaser said “from the dreams of Jennifer Lopez”… and they weren’t kidding, this film is a string of crazy dreams JLo has and she talks about them to her therapist. The film opens with a Puerto Rican legend about two star-crossed lovers called Alida and Taroo, who belonged to warring tribes. It’s a nice tale so I’ll leave the details in case you decide to watch the film.
JLo narrates the story and then ends by saying how all she wanted to do in life was to “be in love.” The narration is done over a string of beautiful paintings, by the way. You know, those multiverse digital drawings wherein a painting will have several paintings within it. And out of nowhere, JLo turns into a factory worker in a steam-punk themed factory which runs a giant metallic heart, which is powered by petals and the factory is out of petals, so it’s an emergency situation and they are all dancing to work their problems away…. are you still reading? Okay. It’s a musical, so dancing in any scene is supposed to be normal. Even when she is having a fight with her boyfriend.
If you’re wondering what big names like Jane Fonda, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Trevor Noah, Sofía Vergara, Sadhguru, and Post Malone are doing in the movie… well… wait for it… they are all celestial beings who are part of the Zodiacal council, so each of them represents a Zodiac Sign, and they watch over the artist, taking an unhealthy interest in her love life. It’s all like a long SNL sketch, some bits are funny, some not so much. Also, you have to be a JLo fan to spot all the references the script makes to her older songs and private life to enjoy some of the jokes. For instance, she watches a Barbara Streisand film after a break-up, mouthing dialogues like a pro, and she is a huge Barbara Streisand fan in real life too.
Jennifer Lopez looks fine as hell. She reminded me of Ariana Grande in some scenes where her hair is pulled back in Grande’s signature ponytail style, which is a huge compliment to Lopez, since she is over 20 years older than Grande. The dancing choreography is excellent for most parts, however, her songs are a mixed bag. Except for the track titled “Can’t Get Enough,” which is hilariously filmed over a montage of her three weddings, with her friends betting over her fate, none of the other songs are the kind that would make you hit pause and Shazam them.
While most songs at least made some sense within the thin plot, the climactic song, which should’ve been the crowning gem of her album, is called “This Is Me… Now.” The lyrics are about a woman talking about her husband and kids, yet she isn’t even married at that point in the film and has no kids (yeah, I know she is referring to her real self, but still). So, the climactic song was random AF, which is not much different from the rest of the runtime. Maybe watch her romantic-comedy “Marry Me” instead and just listen to all her new songs on YouTube.
“This Is Me…Now” is JLo telling fans, “I am still here, I am a hopeless romantic, I love myself, but I won’t stop looking for love and adulation outside of me.”
You can stream it on Prime Video.
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