Rating: *
Verdict: Fish out of water rom-com deserved to be thrown back.
Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker are two very likeable lead actors, so when their mildly amusing lines struggle to make you smile it is clear you're watching a dull and unoriginal romantic comedy. Poorly written and directed, any initial momentum gained thanks to the charm of its leads is well and truly extinguished as Did You Hear About the Morgans? limps towards its predictable ending.
Grant and Parker are rom-com regulars but they make an odd pair as Paul and Meryl Morgan and along with the rest of the cast never convince us they are doing anything other than just going through the paces.
Grant frowns his way through the entire film, throwing out witty one-liners that fall flat. Parker gets landed with another driven, neurotic New York female character, and a script that has her talking at us rather than acting and showing us.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? is also a fish-out-of-water story we've seen before. Paul and Meryl, recently separated, witness a murder and then find themselves whisked away from their busy New York lives into the witness protection programme. With new identities, and without access to phones or computers, the city sophisticate Morgans find themselves in the small, run-down, gun-toting, rodeo loving, Republican town of Ray, Wyoming, where they must stay until the murderer is apprehended. Without the usual day-to-day distractions, and thanks to a little honest and direct advice from their hosts Clay (Sam Elliott) and Emma Wheeler (Mary Steenburgen), the Morgans begin to deal honestly with their problems and their romance is rekindled.
There's a forced subplot to do with adoption, plenty of small town cliches, and some clumsy reminders about what's important in life. That aside, what's really missing here, and what would make the film forgivable, is some engaging chemistry between Grant and Parker.
And more than two laughs. That's exactly how many supposedly funny moments made me laugh, if only I could remember what they were.
Cast: Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Steenburgen
Director: Marc Lawrence
Running time: 103 mins
Rating: PG (coarse language)
