Did You Hear About the Morgans?

City slickers find themselves marooned in Hicksville USA in this ultra-mild frolic which follows the ‘fish-out-of-water’ comedy formula so closely its lack of surprise is almost, well, surprising. The Morgans are ‘boutique’ estate agent Meryl (Sarah Jessica Parker) and swanky expat English lawyer Paul (Hugh Grant) and their marriage is in trouble – fertility issues, infidelity (his) and so on. However, as plot contrivance would have it, on their night out to patch things up, they see one of her wealthy clients being bumped off, and soon, to protect them from the killer at large, they find themselves spirited away to darkest Wyoming. Together – gulp! Without their mobiles – horror!

We’re supposed to care whether they do actually remain together, but there are distractions, like wondering whether SJP’s somewhat amorphous skin tone means she’s actually been replaced by a CGI avatar of herself. Or quite why Grant, who hustles awfully hard with material you’d hardly call fluff, keeps working with writer-director Marc Lawrence – he who brought us ‘Two Weeks Notice’ and ‘Music & Lyrics’, the celluloid equivalent of microwaveable ready meals. There’s a kind of functional professionalism which keeps things burbling along painlessly enough, but it’s an experience more fitting to a flu-ish afternoon on the sofa or long-haul in economy, when we’re at our least demanding. Rootin’, tootin’ cowboy folk Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen add some downhome charm, but from the moment we see posters warning of grizzly attacks in the area, a rampaging bear can’t arrive soon enough.