MOVIE REVIEW - Did You Hear About The Morgans?

Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker star in the new romantic comedy, About The MoDid You Hear Morgans? It's Grants first movie in two years. He's always a good time, and we missed him when during his absence. Now all we have to do is hope Parker takes a few years off too. More on that in a minute.

The Morgans is the story of a young married, New York City couple. Both very New York, both very successful, whose marriage is on the rocks. They're separated, and he really wants to reconcile. She's not so sure. After an attempted reconciliation dinner, they witness a high profile murder, and are forced to enter the Federal Witness Protection Program. They're sent to Ray, Wyoming until the trial or until the case is closed. Of course being a romantic comedy, they fall in love again and work it all out when forced to spend this time together. I didn't spoil the ending..... remember, it's a Christmas time romantic comedy.

This move also stars Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen, also married, and they are the U.S. Marshall's that the Morgans go to live with in Wyoming. Their performance in this movie is really great. They play real country folk, who live in the middle of nowhere, and love it. Perfectly cast and well acted. A real strength to the movie. Grant is who he is. He basically plays the same character in every romantic comedy he's in, and is fine here. Sarah Jessica Parker..well that's another story.

To be frank, she is terrible in this movie, and not by a little. One reason she was so good in Sex And The City, is that she was Carrie Bradshaw. A total New Yorker...and that was it. In SATC, the idea wasn't to be funny, the show was so well written, it just WAS funny. Here, they ask her to be funny, and she's just not. She is irritating, predictable, and one dimensional. Her physical comedy is awful, her timing is lame, and she has done everything on screen she's ever going to do. She has no new game, and here it kills her, and the movie. She looks borderline unhealthy on screen, and has no engagement with the other cast members, or us in the audience. Doesn't help that the only joke they wrote for her was how much she misses NYC. So it's not all her fault. But in a movie sense, she is the killer of this movie.

This movie is tenuous enough. Mediocre writing, a fragile idea, and predictability shoot this one down for the most part. Plus the first 3 minutes of this movie are enough for you to consider walking out of it. It really stumbles out of the gate. It does recover, but not enough to save the day.

Did You Hear About The Morgans. I dare you to laugh out loud at this one. Moments of fun, but overall, average to well below.