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With his unexpectedly intimate chronicle of her $20 million passion project “This Is Me\u2026Now: A Love Story,” documentarian Jason Bergh chips away at the blocks on which Lopez’ pop superstardom was built.
\nWith her ninth album \u201cThis Is Me\u2026Now,\u201d Jennifer Lopez promised to be more honest and vulnerable than ever before \u2014 a bookend to 2002\u2019s \u201cThis Is Me\u2026Then\u201d in which she would \u201ctell her side\u201d of the romances that for decades have been one-dimensionally splashed across the pages of tabloids worldwide. Even as a lifelong fan, I was skeptical just how far back she\u2019d draw the curtain given the meticulous control she\u2019s exerted over her career.<\/p>\n
Between the record and \u201cThis Is Me\u2026Now: A Love Story,\u201d the hourlong not-a-film-but-not-a-music-video accompaniment released concurrently with it, Lopez conveyed pop emotionality more effectively than true intimacy. But \u201cThe Greatest Love Story Never Told,\u201d the third part of her album-cycle media offensive, delivers precisely the revelatory perspective that its counterparts lack. Directed by Jason Bergh, the documentary explores the complicated production of \u201cA Love Story,\u201d in the process exposing a global superstar\u2019s ambitions, responsibilities and insecurities with a merciless but deeply rewarding rawness.<\/p>\n
Bergh covers the album itself in about five minutes: Inspired by her reunion with and eventual marriage to Ben Affleck, Lopez conceived \u201cThis Is Me\u2026Now\u201d as a chronicle of the romances that led her to the love of her life. To complement that musical expression, she wrote \u201cA Love Story,\u201d a series of music video-like vignettes that could, conveniently, be viewed separately, but will be released together as a cohesive narrative \u2014 that is, if someone will pay to do so. After signing a contract with one studio, Lopez learns that the unnamed shingle \u2014 and no one else \u2014 will foot the bill for musical content, not even from one of the biggest pop stars in the world. \u201cIt\u2019s not like anybody was clamoring over the next J.Lo record,\u201d she herself acknowledges.<\/p>\n
Lopez subsequently decides to bankroll the project herself \u2014 an endeavor which Affleck observes is historically risky in Hollywood. Emboldened by members of her inner circle, including Affleck and longtime manager Benny Medina, she enlists director Dave Meyers (\u201cI\u2019m Real (Remix)\u201d) and begins coordinating the logistics of the most ambitious undertaking of her career.<\/p>\n
Affleck expresses trepidations early in the process, particularly after learning that Lopez had shared with her musical collaborators a gift from him \u2014 a book collecting all of their correspondence since the beginning of their relationship. But aside from supporting his partner, he understands that she\u2019s doing exactly what artists must: drawing upon their personal lives to fuel their work. That said, he can\u2019t resist playfully ribbing her about the decision to create a protagonist who\u2019s a few years younger than her, the first indication of Bergh\u2019s aim not simply to go behind the scenes but to try and document her life and her relationship with Affleck in a way that no one has ever seen.<\/p>\n
The production details themselves are surprisingly candid, starting with the original price tag of $30 million \u2014 later trimmed to $20 million after she is forced to finance it herself. Prospective co-stars come and go, such as Anthony Ramos (\u201cIn the Heights\u201d), who elects to remain loyal to his pal Marc Anthony, her ex-husband. \u201cI\u2019m not playing me,\u201d she counters. (Invited to play various members of a Zodiac-sign roundtable or her fictional friend circle, Taylor Swift, Jason Momoa and Khloe Kardashian all pass or are otherwise unavailable.) After Lopez reaches out to Jane Fonda, who became her friend after shooting \u201cMonster In Law\u201d together in 2005, the elder headline magnet worries first about putting this album into the world at all, then about whether or not it will be perceived as sincere. \u201cI was so worried about Ben after the Grammys,\u201d Fonda says, referring to Affleck\u2019s seeming grumpiness at the 2023 ceremony, before Lopez reassures her.<\/p>\n
When not otherwise choosing between different viscosities of mud or fretting over an inoperable conveyor belt, Lopez unexpectedly lets all of her insecurities hang out \u2014 and it is powerful stuff. Reflecting on her reunion with Affleck, she confesses that during their time apart, \u201cI didn\u2019t think much of myself, and so the world didn\u2019t think much of me.\u201d She delves into the relationships with her mother (narcissist) and father (workaholic) that led her to feel so desperate to prove her worth, both personally and professionally. Following the completion of \u201cRebound,\u201d a sequence in which her character is tethered \u2014 sometimes violently \u2014 with one on-screen lover, she exhales a cathartic sigh of relief: \u201cI\u2019ve definitely been manhandled \u2026 and a couple of other unsavory things,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
The encouragement Affleck offers her, such as when she\u2019s convinced that the project will be a disaster, underscores both their shared love and her inexperience with the prospect of true failure. It\u2019s obvious she\u2019s never before put herself out into the world with so much at stake, but you also see that it\u2019s precisely because of his support \u2014 thoughtful and indefatigable \u2014 that she felt confident to attempt it in the first place. That Bergh defines their personalities so distinctly (there\u2019s something perfect and darling about her complete indifference to his excitement about Meyers\u2019 truck full of camera lenses), and yet highlights how well they complement one another, lends profundity to his portrayal of their relationship.<\/p>\n
In fact, this nonfiction project\u2019s success in comparison to the showmanship of its cinematic predecessor makes you almost wish that Lopez had decided to combine the pair into one. Though \u201cA Love Story\u201d and \u201cNever Told\u201d were designed to be companion pieces, the emotional weight of the latter deepens the entertainment value of the former. On the other hand, Bergh\u2019s documentary offers a singular account of the creative process \u2014 and even the dynamics of celebrity relationships \u2014 that a series of \u201cmeta\u201d musical interludes might only dilute.<\/p>\n
But even if unintentional, \u201cThe Greatest Love Story Never Told\u201d remarkably achieves the greatness to which the other two parts of this triumvirate aspire. As the career-long recipient of pervasive and too-often-unflattering media coverage, not to mention the immediate beneficiary of a career-spanning documentary just two years ago with \u201cHalftime,\u201d Jennifer Lopez entered her \u201cThis Is Me\u2026Now\u201d era running the distinct risk of overexposure. By harnessing not just the drive that made her a superstar but the fragility (especially personal) inherent in its maintenance, Jason Bergh\u2019s film accomplishes something unexpected: offering audiences a truly new way to look at her.<\/p>\n
View this article at Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018The Greatest Love Story Never Told\u2019 Review: Jennifer Lopez Learns Love\u2019s Cost in Revelatory Making-Of Doc: With his unexpectedly intimate chronicle of her $20 million passion project “This Is Me\u2026Now: A Love Story,” documentarian Jason Bergh chips away at the blocks on which Lopez’ pop superstardom was built. With her ninth album \u201cThis Is Me\u2026Now,\u201d
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