Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Did You Hear About the Morgans? (*)

Did You Hear About the Morgans? 103 mins. PG-13. Written and Directed by Marc Lawrence. Starring Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Steenburgen, and Sam Elliott.

Romantic comedies have had a rough year. After suffering through such duds as Bride Wars, The Ugly Truth, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and The Proposal, the last thing audiences need at this time is a movie like Did You Hear About the Morgans? Writer-director Marc Lawrence has never been a great writer-director, but you certainly can't fault him for such simple, audience friendly movies like his past hits Miss Congeniality and Music & Lyrics. Uninspired casting and a flat script can only get you so far though, and Lawrence certainly tests the limits of that notion with Did You Hear About the Morgans? Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker play a bickering married couple who witness a murder and then are shipped out to Nebraska to hide in a witness protection program. Like true fish out of water, the two city folk have trouble adapting to their country environment. Can they save their marriage before the killer tracks them down? Hugh Grant is normally the best part of any movie but he's left stranded here. The script is lazy and formulaic, and lacks anything close to resembling a laugh. The romance element of the movie is half-hearted and tacked on as if an afterthought. There's no chemistry between the two leads, and even less suspense. If you have had the (dis)pleasure of hearing about the Morgans, then surely you've heard this: they suck, and so does their movie.

-John

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