‘This Is Me…Now: A Love Story’ movie review: Jennifer Lopez on the path towards self-love, healing and a fairytale ending

Somewhere around the midway mark in This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, Jane Fonda ruminates, “She’s smart and she’s strong, why does she need to be with somebody.” A noisy debate breaks out as she, and the zodiacal council watching over The Artist a.k.a. Jennifer Lopez, continue to scrutinise her love life and string of relationships. 

A cinematic accompaniment to her latest album, This is Me…Now: A Love Story, described as ‘genre bending’, and a ‘narrative-driven cinematic odyssey’, feels like a musical, a deeply biographical feature, and a chaotic collection of music videos all at once. And yet, there’s an earnestness that cuts through this amalgamation of fantasy, romance, introspection, and music, all from Lopez herself. 

In storybook style, the film’s opening montages take us through the Puerto Rican tale of star-crossed lovers Alida and Taroo, which culminates in her on a motorcycle behind a faceless driver as they race through an expansive desert. The Artist, soon enough, crashes into a heart factory and JLo gets a musical introduction befitting the star she is. She choruses along to ‘Time is Precious’, sings grimly to the camera and races against time to solve a problem with the rose petal supply there. It is however in the song that soon follows, Rebound, that we see her at her best. Trapped in a glass house with a manipulative partner, this song showcases the best of her dancing skills, and her earnest on-screen presence. 

This Is Me… sets out to be an exploration of Lopez’s tumultuous relationships, marriages, and journey of healing over the last few decades, and has her real-life confidante Fat Joe playing her therapist. As The Artist, we see Lopez navigate her emotions, struggle to unpack her ‘love addiction’, and embark on her journey of healing through conversations with him. These interactions veer between heartfelt and being too on-the-nose, but the star doesn’t shy away from baring her soul. The references to her career’s highs and lows and her relationships are hard to miss, given how all of this has been scrutinised over the years. 

Overseeing all of this is the eclectic zodiac council with Jane Fonda, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Kim Petras, Jay Shetty, Tervor Noah, and Sadhguru, who discuss and dissect her relationship patterns. This is a truly bizarre collection of people that one wouldn’t expect to see sharing screen space, but also befitting. Simple horoscope columns won’t cut it, for a star. 

Following an intervention staged by her friends, numerous therapist visits, and disappointing relationships, The Artist tearfully  asks what is wrong in wanting to spend your life with somebody. Following a high-profile engagement in 2002 and a break-up a couple of years later, Lopez and actor-director Ben Affleck rekindled their romance in 2021 and got married a year later. This Is Me… too alludes to this finality of sorts, and Lopez does not shy away from admitting that while it is okay to love and heal, she does eventually get her fairytale ending. 

As a companion piece to her album This Is Me…Now, there are high expectations of the music. The songs, however, fall short of being memorable, and are saved by the innovative visuals and choreography. For instance, Lopez attends a Love Addicts meeting where she opens up, and soon breaks into song and dance with the other members. There is also a very fun song pictured at her wedding, with different grooms. Lopez’s charisma as a performer hasn’t dimmed one bit. She is comfortable and confident on screen as an actor, reminiscent of how amazing she was in the 2019 film Hustlers. It truly is hard to take your eyes off her, especially during the songs. Each song is pictured differently, and she glides effortlessly from one dance sequence to another. 

While This Is Me… clearly has its sights set on being an emotional exploration of Lopez’s life, the writing  doesn’t attempt to go beyond the surface (Lopez is credited as a writer and for the story). The film is daring in the way it attempts to balance its many genres. There is sci-fi, fantasy, old school romance (a quick singing in the rain tribute), and of course the music. There is even a whole sequence where she goes back to her roots, looking for answers and yet, we are left with more questions than before. 

The attempt at bringing all of this together onscreen for her music is audacious, no less. And while it might not always come together well, there’s much to enjoy in this deeply personal, rocky journey of healing and love. Lopez truly lights up the screen, and you can’t get enough. 

This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is now streaming on Prime Video