Posted: 12/26/2009

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

(2009)

by Hank Yuloff

When Sarah Jessica is no longer cute, why will we ever watch her?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. We’ll take a couple of city dwellers and put them in the Wild West to see how they adapt. Like City Slickers but we’ll make them an almost divorced couple.

On the way home from a possible reconciliation dinner, Paul and Meryl Morgan (Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) witness an organized crime related murder and are quickly relocated to a small town in Wyoming as part of a Witness Protection Plan. Did I say it was a small town? Ever heard the “here’s the town…. That was the town.” Joke? It’s in here. The production company was so completely uninspired by their own movie that the tagline is We’re Not In Manhattan Anymore. Wow. THAT took a long time. About as long as it took the bad guys to figure out where the Morgan’s were sent and send someone after them.

In Ray, Wyoming, they are protected by a married U.S. Marshal couple Clay and Emma Wheeler (Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen) who are so different from them that of course they may have to reconsider their decision to split up. Side note here - Steenburgen looks HOT packin’ heat. Just sayin.’ I will give this to writer/director Marc Lawrence, he doesn’t have them end up staying in Wyoming plying their trades as country lawyer and real estate agent. But I bet that was ONE of the possible endings. Now add the Morgan’s first trip to a big WalMart-type store and their encounter with one of Nature’s larger creatures and you have a perfect cliché movie.

Not much of a stretch here. Sarah Jessica has SO done the NYC denizen and, let’s face it, Grant has SO done the cheating boyfriend/spouse. The best reason to watch the movie is for Elizabeth Moss’ portrayal of Meryl’s assistant. Moss (Mad Men, The West Wing) was fun to watch, as was Wilford Brimley as one of the local business owners.

If you see it on cable, go ahead, watch it while you check e-mail or pay bills, but don’t spend your time in the theater for this one.

Hank Yuloff Hank Yuloff

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