When did you first fall in love with Jennifer Lopez on screen? Maybe she charmed you while stealing Natasha Richardson’s clothes to flirt with Ralph Fiennes in Maid in Manhattan, or maybe she impressed the hell out of you while she was battling (and eventually blowing up) a ridiculously large snake in Anaconda. Or perhaps you didn’t climb aboard the JLo movie train until later on, when she danced her ass off as the maternal, charismatic, deliciously corrupt crime boss Ramona in Hustlers. The genius behind each of these performances was that with each role, Lopez was not just telling her character’s story but also her own.
It’s not uncommon for viewers to identify actors with their roles, and most of the time, this kind of parasocial interpretation is ill-advised. But look closely at Lopez’s on-screen oeuvre, and it becomes difficult to ignore certain patterns—themes that she loves to act out over and over and over again. For years, “Jenny from the Block”’s rom-com characters were scrappy women of a certain social class who managed to woo certain elite men seen by others as “above” them. (See: The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, and Monster in Law.) Her action characters are tough enough to wrangle snakes. And her dramatic characters—like her breakout role, Selena, and her Hustlers anti-hero Ramona—are tireless underdogs who lead with their hearts while also chasing the American dream.
In other words, Lopez’s movies have long established that she’s Not Like Other Girls—she’s JLo, a smart, savvy woman who came from humble beginnings and conquered the world. Sure, she occasionally gets seduced by a teenager or plays a corrupt cop, but even in those roles, the theme is that she is a good, likable person caught up in something untoward. In movies like Enough (2002), she’s downright fierce. Lately, however, her formula has started to crack. Is it just me, or are JLo movies just not hitting like they used to?
