To see Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson together is to have no doubt that she’d destroy him. She might have some fun, but eventually she’d get bored, dump him and he’d be wrecked. Unfortunately, nothing happens in the movie to persuade us otherwise.

This is too bad, becauseother than that, “Marry Me” is a well-made romantic comedy. It sets up a compelling situation in its early minutes and then hooks us — we definitely want to see how this works out. And the filmmakers do work it all out. We just don’t believe it.

Romantic comedies are different from other movies, because there’s never any question as to the ending. The suspense is entirely in the “how” of it — how will these two people get together? The further away they are at the beginning, the more pleasure there is in seeing them overcome the obstacles.

Now usually, a romantic comedy presents two people who are far away in temperament. But “Marry Me” makes it potentially more interesting. This time we follow superstar singer Kat Valdez (Lopez), who is engaged at the start to another superstar singer, played by Maluma. Our hero is an average middle-class guy named Charlie, a schoolteacher, who’s such an unremarkable, decent fellow that he’s played by Owen Wilson.

From the start, we’re wondering how they will even meet, much less become a couple. Taking a plot move straight out of “Spite Marriage,” a 1929 Buster Keaton comedy, she marries him spontaneously because she’s hurt and angry. Her fiancé has cheated on her, and so she looks into the audience at a concert, sees the first pleasant fellow in her age range and proposes.

Charlie isn’t even a fan — he’s there to accompany his daughter — but, sensing Kat’s genuine distress, he agrees to go ahead with it. He marries her onstage in front of a viewing audience of 20 million people.

这是设置,电影处理ramifications realistically — this is not a broad comedy by any means. The world surrounding the superstar is singular and strange, a barrage of endorsements and public appearances, a life recorded on the cellphones of everyone who passes by. But underlying all of this incidental material is the big question — how will they fall in love? How is that possible?

If you think about it, the demands of the screenplay are obvious. We already know thatsheis remarkable. He has to be remarkable, too. If he’s just a nice, average schlub, she can find another nice, average schlub tomorrow. He has to have some core strength, some genuine indifference to her stardom. He has to be grounded in a way that’s unusual.

In short, “Marry Me” has to behismovie at least as much as hers, and perhaps more than hers.

Wilson was up for it. Throughout, you can see him struggling to make something out a role that requires him to stand around in awe and confusion, grateful whenever his new wife grants him an audience. The screenplay needed to make Charlie, Kat’s inferior in terms of fame and money, her superior in terms of strength or character.

Instead, “Marry Me” is entirely Lopez’s movie, and she’s terrific, right there emotionally in some difficult scenes. But it’s toomuchLopez’s movie — too many (lousy) songs, too many dance numbers. A half hour in, there’s no mistaking it: Lopez was one of the producers.

Still, there’s much that’s enjoyable here. John Bradley (“Moonfall”) has a strong turn as Kat’s manager. Lopez and Wilson are intrinsically appealing, and the aura of the much better movie that “Marry Me” might have been sort of hovers over many scenes.

“Marry Me” is so close to being really good that it’s frustrating. Still, it’s close to being really good.

mlasalle@sfchronicle.com