Did You Heat About The Morgans?

It is important to remember that when you see this movie that it uses a very typical romantic comedy formula. This movie plays on the usual stereotypes between cityfolk and countryfolk, but tends to become a little unfunny especially with the snob outlook of Sarah Jessica Parker as the lifelong New Yorker. While the movie to me had its moments, it did not take full advantage of some of the smaller roles and the stories that they started but never fully developed. Unfortunately, the chemistry between Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker was completely void of any emotion or connection.

While I have always been a fan of Hugh Grant and his dry British wit, he always manages to bring to his roles, this time it was definitely missing something. Grants portrayal is so hollow that it is almost like he is playing a parody of himself.  While his delivery and timing were spot on, it came across as if he were delivering these lines with no one else in the room. This lack of connection to Sarah Jessica Parker makes it so that it is even harder for anyone else to believe that they were ever romantically involved or were ever married. Although he receives his laughs at times it is a definite disappointment that these two veterans of the romantic comedies could not get this movie off the ground. I think this is a clear indicator for us to see that the success of a romantic comedy comes down to the two lead characters and their ability to have chemistry onscreen.

A huge missed opportunity throughout this movie was that of the roles of not only the two assistants to the leads but also the marshal and his wife Emma who look after the Morgans in Wyoming. It is a large shame and may have helped improve the overall chemistry, but instead they keep these two relationships and such a distant that it only helps the chemistry between Parker and Grant to be more hollow and lacking.

Unfortunately, this movie ends up being so formulaic that it left me bored. The worst part of it all is that when the love lost moves back to love found, it happens at the point of almost a snapping of the fingers. And unfortunately Parker being in this movie almost did not serve a purpose to do well in this movie but to get herself back in the public eye to help her gain momentum for the upcoming release of Sex and the City 2.

For me Hugh Grant ended up being the only saving grace in this movie, although part of that might be the fact that I enjoy his british dry wit. I am giving this movie one and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. Hopefully, going forward someone from Hollywood will realize how formulaic the romantic comedy has become and that they will try to actually do romantic comedies that are not so predictable to boredom.

-The Movie Man-