A New York couple having marital problems witnesses a high profile murder and is sent into the witness protection program in small town Ray, Wyoming. Sarah Jessica Parker plays Meryl Morgan, a high profile realtor in Manhattan and Hugh Grant plays Paul Morgan, a New York lawyer who cheats on his wife, is forced into separation, and spends the rest of the movie trying to atone for his mistake. As is the case with every one of these city-folks-sent-to-the-countryside movies, Paul and Meryl have trouble acclimating to their new surroundings and make fools of themselves in the process, but learn to work out their differences.

A little creativity would be nice:

Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker are both regulars of the romantic comedy genre, however this is neither romantic, nor comedic. Much of the movie is spent in cliché moments with cliché responses from its stars leading to yawns and sighs from the audience. Though both Grant and Parker are capable actors in their own right, the script makes little use of their talents as it puts them through run-of-the-mill moments in the wilderness and has them reacting rather immaturely. It’s hard to imagine two people who were so successful in New York, turning into obtuse klutzes the second they enter a small town.

For most of the movie, Grant plays his usual bumbling self, except now that he’s in his 40s, it isn’t charming. Seeing a professional New York lawyer apologizing incessantly and showing less spine than a jellyfish is no longer funny or charming, and it definitely is no way to win over a woman. Parker spends the whole movie making her usual cutesie faces without realizing that it gets really old, really fast. Did You Hear About The Morgans fails to create any onscreen chemistry between the two, making it even more unlikely that such a couple would ever date let alone get married.

If gambling on movies was legal, this would’ve been a sure thing. If the main characters plight and subsequent development wasn’t cliché enough, then the two US Marshalls who provide the Morgans with protection in Ray killed any hope of a twist or creativity in this movie. They spend their time providing examples of what your stereotypical Republican voter looks like: eating meat only diets, riding horses and attending rodeos, and hording guns. Yet somehow they managed to guide the Morgans’ tumultuous relationship and help them learn what really matters in a relationship.

Final Word:

While the plot of the movie is sound, at least for this genre, and the characters reasonably strong, too little time is spent creating any connection between them. The movie seems in a rush to put them in one supposedly comical scene after another and force them to learn to cherish each other as they are. Not worth watching in the cinema, and I’m not sure it’s worth watching on DVD either.

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Starring: Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen

Director: Marc Lawrence

Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Canadian Studio: Sony Pictures Canada