When we went to see the Sex and the City movie, I hated on Carrie Bradshaw so hard – and I mean, I was the chairman and MC of the Hater’s Ball – that Diana expressed a concern that I might hate women or something. We have since agreed that I just dislike the character. I always have.
This has also made me not terribly fond of stuff with Sarah Jessica Parker in it because she is usually just playing some variant of Carrie. This is true in Did You Hear About The Morgans? and so I should, by all rights, have hated it.
I didn’t. I blame Hugh Grant and a script carrying some decent jokes.
Did You Hear About The Morgans? is about what you would expect – it is a romantic comedy in which one dimensional characters have a marriage on the rocks, and then an improbable situation brings them back together. Grant plays Paul Morgan, a high-rent lawyer, and Parker plays Meryl, the president (of course) of New York’s hottest boutique real estate brokerage. Paul boned some random talent on a business trip three months ago and they’ve been separated ever since. They used to be happy and Paul ruined everything, etc.
Paul talks Meryl into seeing him for dinner, which, as he says later, “was going quite well until the murder.” On the way home, Meryl and Paul witness the assassination of some Eurotrash dude, and the killer figures out who Meryl is because this is the week she’s on the cover of New York Magazine. After Meryl gets made, the guy shoots US Marshall DotCom From 30 Rock in a failed attempt to kill her.
And so the feds take the Super New Yorkers and put them in the witness protection program, sending them to Wyoming to hang out with Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, and – I’m not kidding – Wilford Brimley. Hilarity ostensibly ensues.
Before I start writing about the things I liked, let me be clear: this is not really a good movie. It isn’t terrible or offensive, it isn’t Lucky Numbers bad or anything, but it is mostly run-of-the-mill to below-average RomCom stuff. So even though I have a few nice things to say, don’t expect to find much here.
It also has almost no music at all, which I think works against it, as the pacing isn’t fast enough and the dialog, while decent, is not riveting at all in a way that can suck all the open air out of scene after scene and lessen the need for a decent score. Something western-cartoonish by a James Venable would have been welcome, but instead, most scenes are just speech and silence.
Now, for the good stuff: I like dry humor, and I’ve always liked everything I’ve ever seen Hugh Grant in. I have not seen everything he’s done, and I’m sure there’s some turds floating around in that punchbowl, but if Diana is lobbying for a romantic comedy / chick flick at the video store and Hugh Grant is in it, I will usually buckle and put back whatever sad war documentary or vampire movie I’ve been carrying around. I thought About a Boy and Love Actually were good, entertaining movies. That shit in Notting Hill where he can’t get over the fence makes me laugh every time.
In Morgans, Hugh Grant hits his marks and delivers the deadpan jokes they cast him for, and despite a milquetoast story thesis and his mundane / weird surroundings, he makes it work. Watching Hugh Grant talk to a grizzly bear or try to chop wood is funny. After a few days in Wyoming, Meryl invites Grant’s character outside at night to see the stars. He looks up, gasps slightly, and says, “Dear God, is that right?” His delivery made me laugh out loud.
The fish out of water stuff is fine for the purpose it serves, and I think that if you generally like movies like this (or have a soft spot for Hugh Grant, like me), you will enjoy this one enough to have made it not a waste of time. They only shot for 25 days and it didn’t make much money. Etc and etc. If you can’t normally tolerate movies like this and seek to watch films instead of movies, you will probably think Morgans is utter shit.
One thing of note: The critics beat up on this one pretty hard, and Sarah Jessica Parker got a Razzie for lead actress. I understand the former, but as for the latter I’m not sure why, really. This isn’t a good movie and Sarah Jessica Parker isn’t really a good actress, but I’ve never thought she was obviously or intolerably bad at the one role she ends up playing over and over again. She is that same character in this movie and, for what the movie is, she does fine. Just as my brohug for Grant carried me through the movie, if you tend to enjoy Sarah Jessica Parker, you’ll probably find at least a few things to like here. Also, Peggy from Mad Men plays Meryl’s assistant and has some of the best comedic business in the movie.
SCORE
The story is bad but the jokes are decent. Even with Sarah Jessica Parker being Sarah Jessica Parker, Hugh Grant and appropriately low expectations made me feel like I’d broken even at the end of it all. Did You Hear About The Morgans? gets a 2 out of 5.
