Fear and
loathing
Traditionally,
what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Unfortunately, that’s
not the case here as director Tom Vaughan and cast show us what
transpires after an ill-advised hook-up in the US gambling capital.
Perhaps the title can be considered a consumer advisory, because
most things about this limp rom-com are as plastic as most things
in the eponymous city.
What Happens in Vegas… follows the
now-familiar pattern of “opposites attract” romantic
comedies, something that goes way back to the earliest days of
the movies. I mean, you can cite His Girl Friday and
The Philadelphia Story as prime examples of the genre
– and they date from the 1920s and 30s. With that kind of
pedigree, the onus was squarely on Vaughan and scriptwriter Dana
Fox to come up with something fresh to add to the mix. Sadly,
that proves too large a task for them; with the story sticking
very much to the stereotype.
The unlikely pair are slacker Jack Fuller (Ashton
Kutcher) and driven stockbroker Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz). Both
are suffering from recent traumatic events; Joy has been dumped
by her fiancé, and Jack has been fired – by his dad
(Treat Williams) of all people. Both decide to blow off some steam
in Las Vegas with their respective best friends, Tipper (Lake
Bell) and Hater (Rob Corddry). A mix-up over room allocations
sees the foursome thrown together for a night on the town –
an expedition that sees Jack and Joy hitched in the morning. They
decide they’re probably better off apart; that is until
Jack uses one of Joy’s coins to play a slot machine and
wins $3 million. Back in New York, a rather creative judge (Dennis
Miller) decides the pair need to at least give this marriage thing
a go, so he freezes the money and orders the pair to spend six
months working on their marriage.
If
you can’t see where this movie is going, you just haven’t
been watching enough movies. Indeed, even if you’ve only
seen a few rom-coms, you can pretty much chart out where the plot
is going to end up.
To make matters worse, Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher
don’t exactly light up the screen as the battling spouses.
There have been many memorable couples in the history of the silver
screen, but this isn’t one of them. The pair have virtually
zero chemistry on-screen, and actually fare considerably better
in their individual scenes than they do together.
With so little in the way of surprises in the story
department and the main couple a flop, the main attraction from
this movie comes via the little things. High on that list is the
supporting cast, which easily outshines the leads. Dennis Miller
is dryly droll as the judge; Treat Williams has a few nice moments;
and Dennis Farina gets plenty of laughs as Joy’s boss. But
the best moments come via Rob Corddry and Lake Bell as the best
friends. Corddry’s incompetent lawyer and Bell’s darkly
malicious bartender get to deliver some of the more memorable
lines of the film.
What Happens in Vegas… is strictly
for fans of Kutcher or Diaz, or those gullible enough to be sucked
in by slick advertising. While you’ll no doubt smile a few
times during this movie, by the end, you’re more likely
to be dozing off.
David Edwards
