THE WEDDING PLANNER. Directed by Andy Shankman. Written by Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis. 100 minutes. PG-13.

If you’ve seen the trailer or the television ads for “The Wedding Planner,” the latest film to toss its bouquet straight into the fires of the wedding-chaos genre, then you’ve essentially seen the movie, which is the latest Hollywood casualty to reveal most of its major plot twists in its ads.

In this case, that decision doesn’t necessarily harm the experience of seeing the film; unless you’ve recently returned from six decades atop an iceberg in the Antarctic, it’s safe to assume that even a clam could figure out how this movie turns out.

Still, it’s always curious to see how the suits in Hollywood think – which, in this case, they haven’t. “The Wedding Planner,” directed by Andy Shankman from a script by Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis, is so audaciously contrived and ridiculous, it makes arranged marriages look fun and worthwhile by comparison.

It stars Jennifer Lopez as Mary Fiore, a smart, savvy career woman of impeccable taste whose great talent is in planning weddings. Not small weddings, mind you, but the sort of weddings that are so large and extravagant, they require Mary to wear headsets through which she communicates with her busy staff – a raucous crew of giddy women who join Mary in making certain everything goes as smoothly as the icing on one of her client’s cakes.

The catch? As jaw-dropping as this might seem, Mary has no romantic life of her own. She’s a cute, single young woman with all the heart and compassion in the world, yet she doesn’t have a man.

That’s no fault of Mary’s father, Salvatore (Alex Rocco), who’s desperate to marry Mary off to her childhood friend, Massimo (Justin Chambers). But when Mary and her prized Gucci shoe are saved from a runaway Dumpster by the studly Dr. Steve (Matthew McConaughey), a man engaged to Mary’s latest client, the heiress Fran Donolly (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), this film’s garter, so to speak, starts to ride a little low on the thigh.

As an actress, Lopez is a doll, but this time out, she’s been turned into a stick figure. Unlike her performances in “Selena,” “Out of Sight” and “The Cell,” all of which showed off her surprising range, “The Wedding Planner” confines her to a character that doesn’t exist. To compensate, she does her damnedest to infuse Mary with charm and life, but since Mary is essentially a cinematic archetype of the 1950s and early 1960s (think Doris Day), it becomes impossible for Lopez to make her seem real in the film’s postfeminist present.

Complicating matters is McConaughey, who has no chemistry with his co-star. But where the film truly becomes divorced from reality is in its dialogue, a sampling of which should have been left at the altar: “I look in your eyes and it hurts my insides.”

That’s funny – watching this movie has the same effect.

Grade: D+

On video and DVD

WHAT LIES BENEATH. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Written by Clark Gregg. 130 minutes. PG-13.

Robert Zemeckis’ “What Lies Beneath” has four things going for it: a good director in Zemeckis (“Cast Away,” “Forrest Gump,” “Back to the Future”), a strong cast in Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford, superior production values, and the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock hovering over the entire production.

How much does Hitchcock influence Zemeckis’ film? Considering that Ford plays a character named Norman and much of the film’s early suspense comes straight out of “Rear Window,” let’s just say that Hitch is rattling chains at every turn.

“Beneath,” which draws from a wealth of other films, especially “Ghost,” “Ghost Story,” and – to a lesser degree – Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” and “Suspicion,” is beautifully shot, nicely scored and well-crafted. That is, unfortunately, until the last 20 minutes, when Zemeckis mistrusts himself and his audience and relies on the very element that cheapened the ending of “Fatal Attraction.”

Still, “Beneath” is nevertheless worth seeing, if only for the way the film’s mystery is slowly revealed in ways that keep you rooted to the screen.

Since much of the film’s success comes from its several twists and turns, we’ll leave the plot at this: Claire Spencer (Pfeiffer), wife of Norman (Ford), is certain their Vermont home is haunted by a woman desperate to tell her something. Doors open at will, bathtubs fill with water, photographs fall from desks, and telltale words appear on bathroom mirrors. Beneath these clues lies a mystery that sweeps Claire to the edge of insanity as distressing truths about her personal life are gradually revealed.

With Pfeiffer and Ford fine in their first pairing, and Diana Scarwid fun as Claire’s irreverent friend, “What Lies Beneath” is a good, sometimes gripping popcorn movie that finds considerable suspense in its restraint until, for some reason, Zemeckis delivers an over-the-top ending.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6.