A mean-spirited streak
is creeping into studio-manufactured rom-coms these days -- you
know, where someone wants to sabotage his best friend's
wedding. This escalates in Fox's "What Happens in Vegas," a
film that views marriage as a combat sport.
Forced into a temporary marriage of inconvenience,
characters played by Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher come out
fighting. They play every dirty trick on each other until, yes,
of course, they fall in love. But the film is interested only
in the dirty tricks; the love stuff is shrugged off with a
sneer.
The comedy will play to undemanding juvenile audiences who
only want to see two of Hollywood's bright young things diss
each other for 90 minutes. So Fox probably has a modest hit on
its hands. And if you're scoring this one, give Diaz a TKO.
She's had more experience making fluff stand up, even if it is
slightly rancid.
The setup is crudely designed in Dana Fox's screenplay. Two
"losers" from New York -- an insecure commodities trader who
got dumped by her boyfriend and a slacker who got fired by his
dad -- wind up drunk in Las Vegas with their best pals, played
in true second-banana wise-ass style by Lake Bell and Rob
Corddry. The couple wakes up with a hangover -- and a marriage
certificate. Each agrees it's all a mistake. Then a coin gets
tossed into a slot machine and the "couple" wins $3 million.
A curmudgeon judge (played by perpetually cranky Dennis
Miller) refuses to release the money to either member of the
pleasure-first generation he despises. Instead he sentences
them to "six months hard marriage" before they can get an
annulment and the money.
Most people would spend six months with a skunk for $1.5
million, but no, this sentence unleashes a series of wildly
unsuccessful attempts by each member of the unhappily married
couple, living in his unkempt flat, to get the other to give up
so as to win ALL the cash. Each attempt is lamely conceived and
all too predictable. Also, none is designed to make a viewer
care about either one.
British director Tom Vaughan ("Starter for 10") hits each
scene too hard, apparently in fear that subtlety counts for
nothing with the audience for "Vegas." He might not be wrong.
Only Diaz shows spark because the actress knows how to
simultaneously play nice and be a nasty character, thereby
gaining audience sympathy. Everyone else hits one note, and it
isn't nice.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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