What Happens in Vegas (2008)
Directed by Tom Vaughan
Written by Dana Fox
Starring Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz, Lake Bell, Rob Corddry
Release Date May 9th, 2008
Published May 9th, 2008
Only in Vegas can two strangers from New York get drunk, married and rich in under 24 hours. Or so the Las Vegas Tourism board would have you believe. That is the beginning of the story in the new comedy What Happens In Vegas, a predictable new romantic comedy from stars Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz. Kutcher is Jack and Diaz is Joy and they meet in Vegas after a hotel mix up.
They party together and end up married. The following day a nasty break up leads to Jack stealing a quarter from Joy and winning 3 million dollars. Because Joy claims that Jack stole her quarter she claims that have the winnings belong to her leading to a fight in court. Returning to New York the couple find themselves in the court of an eccentric judge (Dennis Miller) who sentences them to 6 months hard marriage. Should either decide to end the marriage before the 6 months is up, they are out their share of the 3 million. This sets up a War of the Roses scenario with each trying to get the other to give up.
What Happens In Vegas is not a terrible film. Rather, it is just a terribly predictable one. Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz strike a pretty good romantic chemistry and have moments together that show the potential that is squandered in What Happens In Vegas. Throughout the movie there are good scenes that are undone by a strict adherence to the typical.
Like last weeks Made of Honor, What Happens In Vegas is locked into the very particular structure of the romantic comedy. That will include a false crisis and a false dawn, followed by a real crisis and a real dawn, as if the legendary screenwriting teacher Robert McKey had written the movie himself. The protagonists hate each other then love each other and then hate each other once more before things play out as you expect.
What stinks about What Happens In Vegas is the potential for something smarter and funnier that is hinted at throughout the movie but not explored. Scenes of strong emotion or any scenes that might deepen our connection to these characters are glossed over in order to get to some ugly slapstick and the clichés of a typical romantic comedy. It's obvious that Kutcher and Diaz could give us more but the filmmakers appear determined not to allow anything into the movie that hasn't been done in several dozen other, similar movies.
What a shame.
