{"id":4535,"date":"2011-04-03T21:46:23","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T20:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=4535"},"modified":"2011-04-03T21:46:23","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T20:46:23","slug":"did-you-hear-about-the-morgans-day-twenty-five-40movies40days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/did-you-hear-about-the-morgans-day-twenty-five-40movies40days\/","title":{"rendered":"Did You Hear About The Morgans – Day Twenty Five – #40movies40days"},"content":{"rendered":"
A successful Manhattan couple, lawyer Paul Michael Morgan (Hugh Grant) and real estate agent Meryl Judith Morgan (Sarah Jessica Parker) are separated because of Paul’s infidelity. But they are thrust together when they witness a murder and become targets of a contract killer, Vincent (Michael Kelly).<\/div>\n
Paul and Meryl go on a “date” in town and begin to reconcile, but then Paul is alienated when he learns that Meryl had had an affair while they were separated. The next day, with the killer in town, the Morgans anticipate leaving Ray for a permanent hiding place. The Wheelers invite them to a rodeo, but the Morgans are quarreling so they decline. Leaving the Morgans without any form of security, the Wheelers leave for the rodeo. The killer attacks the house, but the Morgans are able to sneak out. Fleeing to the rodeo, they hide in a bull suit and accidentally frighten a live bull into head-butting them. Meryl, unable to walk, stays hidden from the killer while Paul confronts him with another canister of bear repellant but accidentally sprays himself in the face and is rescued by Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler and his new friends from the town.<\/div>\n
Six months later, Paul and Meryl are still married having just adopted a baby girl from China, whom they name Rae, and Meryl is pregnant with a child of their own.<\/div>\n

\"did_you_hear_about_the_morgans\"<\/a>This movie demonstrates conclusively that an actor’s persona is no replacement for actual character development in a script. \u00a0Hugh Grant substitutes ticks, shrugs and halting bemused cordiality for interesting dialogue. \u00a0Sarah Jessica Parker uses hair tossing and wounded narcissism in place of witty banter. Neither role or character is fully developed and it’s unclear why the couple should stay together emotionally. \u00a0This movie is a perfect example of what not to do when writing a romantic comedy.<\/p>\n

The story, thanks in large part to Wikipedia, is this–<\/p>\n

A wealthy successful Manhattan couple, lawyer Paul Morgan (Hugh Grant) and real estate agent Meryl Morgan (Sarah Jessica Parker) separate because of Paul’s infidelity. (He cheated once while out-of-town during a rough patch in their marriage– she was a hormonal lunatic undergoing in vitro fertilization). They are separated but are thrust back together when they witness a murder together and become the targets of a contract killer, Vincent (Michael Kelly).<\/p>\n

The couple is whisked away to Big Sky and Tiny Town Country through the witness protection program. \u00a0After advice from the US Marshall couple they stay with, Paul asks Meryl go on a “date” in town. \u00a0Her vegetarian regime is at odds with the local carnivore culture. \u00a0They are booted out of the restaurant.<\/p>\n

They begin to reconcile over bingo and jogging and more jogging. \u00a0Paul is injured when Meryl accidentally douses him with bear spray. Then Paul is shocked to discover that Meryl also had an affair after they were separated. \u00a0(She needed reassurance of a kind that only a one-night stand can deliver, apparently.)<\/p>\n

The warring couple is scheduled to leave, separately, for individual permanent hiding places the following day.\u00a0The killer tracks them down when Meryl, despite strict warnings not to call ANYONE, cancels her adoption plans (made without Paul’s knowledge). \u00a0The US Marshall couple invite them to a farewell rodeo, but the Morgans are quarreling so they decline.<\/p>\n

\"did_you_hear_about_the_morgans_lrg-15eav80-thumb-260x195-6828\"<\/a>Leaving their charges without any form of security, the US Marshall couple leaves for the rodeo. The killer attacks the house, but the Morgans are able to flee on horseback. Heading to the rodeo, they hide in a bull suit and frighten a live bull into head-butting them. Meryl, unable to walk, stays hidden from the killer while Paul confronts the killer with a canister of bear repellant. \u00a0He accidentally sprays himself in the face. The killer is felled by a horseshoe pitched to the head by the US Marshall.<\/p>\n

Six months later, Paul and Meryl are still married and back in Manhattan, having just adopted a baby girl from China. \u00a0They name the baby Rae (after the town where they reconciled). Meryl is also pregnant with their biological child.<\/p>\n

There is no exchange of gifts (we don’t see why these two imperfect halves should come together to make a more perfect whole.) \u00a0They don’t grow through their relationship with each other. \u00a0He regains her “trust” by a misguided attempt to attack the killer with bear repellant. \u00a0(Oh! \u00a0You tried to rescue me!) \u00a0It’s unclear how she regains his trust (after registering for an adoption he wasn’t ready for). \u00a0They are rich. She is a narcissist. \u00a0He is inept. \u00a0Clearly a match made in… Manhattan?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This movie demonstrates conclusively that an actor’s persona is no replacement for actual character development in a script. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47],"tags":[25,26,198,1117,27,28,30,31,214,32,33,34,216,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42],"class_list":["post-4535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-character-development-screenwriting-screenplay-script-blog","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-comedy","tag-did-you-hear-about-the-morgans","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-hugh-grant","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-rom-com","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-tv","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This movie demonstrates conclusively that an actor's persona is no replacement for actual character development in a script.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}