Film Reviews

Just Married

• Rating:
• Director: Shawn Levy.
• Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, David Rasche, David Moscow, Monet Mazur.
• Details: US / 90 mins / (12PG).

Told predominantly in flashback, Just Married traces the bumpy relationship of regular guy Tom (Kutcher, last seen in that unforgivable crime against humanity Dude, Where's My Car) and privileged girl Sarah (Murphy). After a whirlwind romance, the young lovers decide to get married. But as soon as they are proclaimed man and woman, problems creep into their union, troubles that the pair never seemed to have when they were just lovers. A dream honeymoon in Europe seems to be the answer, but things don't quite as well as they might have hoped. Startlingly devoid of ambition, Just Married is a blandly generic romantic comedy, a movie where the tedious performances are superseded only by the weak-willed, predictable nature of the screenplay. Attempting (unsuccessfully, natch) to wring laughs from the most obvious places and far too reliant on the physical comedy antics of Kutcher (an inadequate performer at his most inspired), Just Married offers little in the way of entertainment. Or laughs. Or dignity for its actors. Or favourable representations of Europeans beyond the most hackneyed stereotypes. Or anything beyond a complete waste of 90 minutes.

Review by Garreth Murphy