Did You Hear About the Morgans? stars Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker as a busy, estranged couple who are forced to leave their beloved Manhattan when they witness a crime and have to go into witness protection in Wyoming. Forced to be together, will they reconcile? Come on! Only Elizabeth Hurley could effectively kick that man to the curb when he wronged her. I normally hate rom coms, but all bets are off when Grant is in the movie.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? is a cynical, tropey movie that exploits every convention to make a buck and emotionally manipulate the audience, but I was entertained. I wish that I was better than this movie, but I am not. To be clear, I did not see it in the theaters, and I never paid to see it. If I had, my opinion may be quite different, but it was streaming on Netflix, and if you turned on the television, and it happened to be airing, I would not pick up the remote control.
It is particularly galling that I enjoyed Did You Hear About the Morgans? because it is foundationally insulting to my way of life. The underlying presumption is that city folk are too darn busy and rife with vice that will destroy a potentially beautiful family whereas the rural areas are innately welcoming, fertile ground for happiness, love and community. It is that whole propaganda lie about the heartland of America, and how real Americans come from certain areas instead of real Americans are Americans who were either born here or chose to live here. City bad, country good.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? also traffics in exploiting gender norms to elicit humor. The idea is that men do not really know how to be men. Grant will never compete with Dwayne Johnson for the same roles nor would we want him to, but the film laughs at his expense, his famously stumbling, British effete persona, for not being a manly man. He is scared. He gets hurt easily. The implicit lesson of this film is that if he was a real man, he could hold on to his wife instead of feed his insecurities with philandering cheat then have to win her back. So the real reason for injecting a brutal murder into the premise of the rom com is to give him a goal: to fulfill his vow of protecting her thus proving his love for her. I find the whole thing distasteful as I lick the bowl clean.
On the other hand, Grant is letting us make fun of him while carrying a bag of cash. Grant is the GOAT for leveraging a scandal into a career reboot so people can enjoy criticizing him on screen for being a scoundrel then taking the round trip all the way back around to being the charming, romantic lead that you want to snag for life. It is absurd and ridiculous, but I am here for it.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? managed to make Parker’s character relatable. As a born New Yorker, I have to confess that I resemble this line although I have managed to outgrow it, “I’m a New Yorker. This is my home! I don’t even like Connecticut!” Side note: I don’t have anything against Connecticut. It is a fine place to drive through to get to your real destination. Can I find a way to make a completely unnecessary New Jersey dig? Sadly, no. I wish that I could rise above such regional prejudice pettiness, but apparently you can take the girl out of the city, but not the snark. Her astonishment at the price of clothes in Wyoming tickled me. She lost me when she wanted to have kids. It is so cliché. She is a wildly successful real estate agent in the most competitive market in the country, but she just wants to be a mother. Eye roll. Booooo! I know that most human beings are like that, but I just wish that I did not have to see it, and that lifestyle just was not pushed in my face. Also what is the point of having an icon (not to me, but objectively for Parker’s work in Sex & the City) without hyperlinks so we know where to buy the clothes that she wears as we are watching the movie or on IMDb, specifically the jacket that she wears during the flight to Wyoming. How dare you!?! Sure, I probably cannot afford it, but I do not KNOW that, do I?
I have to confess that I liked the cheesy story of Did You Hear About the Morgans? There is some truth to the fact that being busy keeps you less connected to life so when you are forced to slow down, it will either make you appreciate what you have or want to run away screaming from it, and if you have a built a life that you love, it will be the former, not the latter. Becoming a part of a community anywhere is important-a place where you can live and work. You do not have to live in the country to have one.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? has a really good cast albeit underutilized. If you must see every film with Sam Elliott, he is paired beautifully with Mary Steenburgen as the Wyoming sheriffs who are protecting the couple. Wilford Brimley makes an appearance. Elisabeth Moss plays Parker’s executive assistant. House of Cards’ Michael Kelly plays the evil killer. The Walking Dead’s Father Gabriel, i.e. Seth Gilliam, plays a US Marshall. Sharon Wilkins, the Highlander of black women actors in this film, has a lovely moment of hilarity with Parker as another US Marshall, and fun fact, was in Two Weeks Notice, another film starring Hugh Grant. She is a Broadway star, darling, though I am sadly ignorant of her work. More work for Wilkins! Also kudos goes to Bart the Bear 2, who plays the unnamed Chekhov’s bear in this film and is best known for his work in Game of Thrones, specifically “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” where he got to fight Brienne, but both lived and are reported to actually be good friends in real life.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? is a welcome diversion albeit complete and utter pablum. If you enjoy rom coms, Hugh Grant, insulting your intelligence, being spoon fed regional lies, reinforce subconscious political propaganda, gender bias and fantasies about settling down to a simpler life, then this film is for you. The bad news is that you may not be as substantive a person as you would like to believe, but the good news is that you will be able to forget that you even watched the film and deny it in the future without truly lying because it is that forgettable. Without notes, I would not remember anything about this popcorn flick. It will evaporate like cotton candy upon consumption.