Review: Not much of anything

Film: Did you hear about the Morgans? (U/a)
Director: Marc Lawrence
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Hugh Grant, Sam Elliott,
Rating: **

Director Marc Lawrence teams up with favourite hero Grant to try and rekindle the cutesy magic of Music and Lyrics, but the result is a bore.

The story is a rehash of subplots from several successful romcoms. Meryl (Parker) and Paul Morgan (Grant) are a successful couple who live a perfect life save for the fact that their marriage is crumbling.

They witness a murder and become targets of a contract killer so the Feds have to whisk them away to a secret location. The two have little to do there but sort out their differences and rekindle their romance.

It’s a convoluted set-up for a comedy/romance picture. The high-powered lives led by the couple with their respective personal assistants in tow appears unappealing. The fractured relationship is depicted in typical fashion and the murder break and subsequent getaway come just when the relationship is floundering.

The problem thereafter strikes at the very core of the narrative. Lawrence’s script deems the couple must find a safe house but the reasoning is thin.

The couple may have seen the killer but the FBI hasn’t, so he could just as well have left the country. But to keep the story moving, he returns to haunt the couple. Really nothing much to laugh or cry abut!