According to the lead single from Jennifer Lopez’s second album, released a couple of years after her first divorce from Ojani Noa, love don’t cost a thing.
Almost 25 years and three further marriages later (via Cris Judd, Marc Anthony and now Ben Affleck), the Latin pop diva revisits that statement in a semi-autobiographical companion film to her first studio album in a decade.
Co-written by 54-year-old Lopez, This Is Me… Now: A Love Story spares no expense dramatising her turbulent romantic life as lavish music video spectaculars including the leading lady riding a wrecking ball to her malfunctioning mechanical heart.
The thin connective tissue between these show-stopping set pieces is Lopez’s alter ego, a hopeful romantic who believes “love never dies and forever is real”.
She ricochets between therapy sessions and a love addicts anonymous meeting under the heavenly gaze of a zodiacal council played by the likes of Jane Fonda, Sofia Vergara and Post Malone, who bicker and quip.
All roads lead to the emotional devastation of splitting from Ben Affleck, who bookends the film.
The playful self-indulgence and Lopez’s homage to Singin’ In The Rain leave a sweet taste in the mouth just like the post-credits out-take involving wedding cake.
And if that’s not enough, and you have any lingering doubts about her love of hyperbole, you can get the full ‘real story’ later this month on Amazon Prime in the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is streaming now on Prime Video