 DVD Review: Did You Hear About The Morgans?
By Tamsin Cracknell
Directed: Marc Lawrence (Two Weeks Notice, Music & Lyrics)
Starring: Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Elliot, Mary Steenburgen
Legendary movie critic Roger Ebert wants to know: “Is this movie more entertaining than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?” Our answer: that would depend on what they're eating.
In this cringe-worthy rom-com, Grant and Parker play New York power couple Paul and Meryl Morgan, recently separated after Meryl's frenzied meltdowns over her infertility drove Paul into another woman's bed. After witnessing the murder of an arms dealer together (just another evening in the Big Apple), and being spotted by the killer, the duo is whisked away to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Ray, Wyoming, and placed in the protective custody of crime-fighting cowboys Clay and Emma Wheeler. Slick, cool and uncomplicated, the Wheelers have their hands full as they try to keep the neurotic, bickering Manhattanites out of harm's way.
From the broadest overview to the finest detail, there isn't a new idea in sight here. Warring couple forced together by adversity? Seen it. New Yorkers making fools of themselves in the countryside? Seen it. Stand-off with a grizzly bear? Saw it coming, which is just as disappointing.
 Were the lead roles filled by lesser-known actors, critics might not have ripped this movie apart quite so harshly in their reviews. But the more Parker squeals and prances, and the more lines Grant delivers into his neck, the more difficult it is to get past the sense that everything about this movie has been done before, and better. (For example: Date Night with Tina Fey and Steve Carell is suspiciously similar, but far more entertaining.)
Nonetheless, trash like this goes over like gangbusters at the box office, so if you have a particular affinity for doctor's waiting-room magazines, then this might be the movie for you.
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