“Just Married” Starring Brittany Murphy
Directed by Shawn Levy
Marriage is no laughing matter, and the new comedy “Just
Married,” about a botched honeymoon only reaffirms that
statement. Most of the jokes in the film have been played out in
past movies of the same genre (such as a girl’s dog that
hates her boyfriend and jokes about airplane bathrooms), and at
this point will seem old to viewers. Physical humor and poop jokes
can be funny when done in a creative manner, but the filmmakers of
“Just Married” assume that watching people repeatedly
fart and hurt themselves can be funny on its own without any kind
of creative setup. To make things worse, the plot is nearly
nonexistent and many of the characters, with their shrill voices
and airhead antics, are unbearable. Toward the end of the movie,
however, things pick up ever so slightly, and Kutcher elicits some
laughs. But this show of comedic talent comes too little, too late
for this dreary film. “Just Married” is a movie with
laughs that are few and far between. The lack of an engaging
plotline is reconcilable, other similar plotless films still
managed a plethora of funny scenes, but this movie’s comedic
failures are grounds for a divorce. -Suneal Kolluri
“The Hours” Starring Meryl Streep, Julianne
Moore, Nicole Kidman Directed by Stephen Daldry
It is often said that too many cooks spoil the brew so it is a
miracle that “The Hours” is still somewhat palatable.
This prestige picture bursts at the seams with a big enough
pedigree to start a club: a Pulitzer Prize-winning source, an
award-winning cast, an Oscar-nominated director, and no less than
three prolific producers (Scott Rudin and the Weinstein brothers).
It looks like a safe bet on paper, but this tightly woven tapestry
of one day in the lives of Virginia Woolf (Kidman) in the early
20th century, Laura Brown (Moore) in 1949, and a modern-day
Clarissa Vaughan (Streep) makes the dangerous assumption that,
because of the people behind it, it has to be important. We have to
empathize with these characters and their stories. Fans of Michael
Cunningham’s book will appreciate the faithful adaptation of
his brilliant novel, and Stephen Daldry skillfully pulls off the
telling of three stories simultaneously. The performances from the
entire cast are as good as the marketing campaign would have you
believe, even Kidman’s much-hyped turn as Mrs. Woolf. But
“The Hours” doesn’t try hard to do much more than
act as a vehicle for its individual talents, failing to make an
audience really care about what happens in this story. The parts
are all there and they’re wonderful parts, but they do not
make a whole. -Paul Mendoza