Review: Just Married

A Review By Contributor Daniel Leonhard:

Just Married is a teen some-what romantic comedy about a guy and a girl (Kutcher and Murphy) who come from completely opposite lifestyles. The guy: Tom Leezak, a traffic reporter for a local radio station and a sports fanatic. The girl: Sarah McNerney, a spoiled rich girl from a wealthy Beverly Hills family. The two meet when Tom accidentally hits her in the head with a football during a game with his buddies, and as you might have guessed, they fall in love at first sight.

Now, of course, this produces a problem with Sarah’s snobbish family. Tom tries to fit in with all of their wealthy conglomerates, but fails miserably.  But no matter what Sarah’s family says, they cannot convince her to change her mind. The two end up getting married as the title suggests, and so begins the mayhem.

Things start to go wrong before the honeymoon to Europe even begins. Tom and Sarah are struck with a constant and hilarious stream of bad luck, conflicting opinions, and a visit from Sarah’s ex-boyfriend (Kane). Most people (especially teenagers) will find this movie to be hilarious because of Ashton Kutcher’s ability to constantly worsen the already unfortunate situations, and the disfunctionality of the two lovers.

Although I must say Just Married delivered almost countless laughs, there was a lot of areas it was lacking in. For one thing: the chemistry between Tom and Sarah.  Throughout the whole movie it seemed as though they were a couple of flirting teenagers, rather than a serious couple. Although these character traits may have been intentional, they certainly didn’t help the movie.  And several times when the characters were supposed to come off as serious and sincere, it just seemed like another joke.

Ashton Kutcher’s role in this movie is quite similar to his in Dude, Where’s My Car? and TV’s That 70’s show.  But something about him in this movie is lacking his loveable stupidity from previous roles. He still plays the dumb, funny, sociable teen, but it’s just not as funny as in his other movies.  It seems these are the only kind of movies he can make, but now it looks as though his character is becoming too predictable and a bit of a cliché for him.  He is also incapable; it seems, of being at all serious.  Every line seems as if it’s supposed to be laughed at.

Brittany Murphy expresses her natural acting talent perfect for playing the feisty, yet spoiled wife who isn’t used to dealing with all these misfortunes and must learn to live with them. Although I can’t say her character is the type of girl most guys would want to marry, she definitely fits the role well. But, like Kutcher, she is slightly lacking during the serous scenes and makes it seems like another joke.

Another good thing about this movie, despite the somewhat bad acting when it comes to the serious scenes, is that it delivers a good message. Although that’s not usually what people look for in a comedy like this, its nice to know the movie actually has a point instead of just a bunch of random misfortunes happening to two very unlucky people.

Despite all the laughs, I wouldn’t recommend seeing this in theaters unless you happen to be desperately in need of something to do, or you have a bunch of extra cash lying around you just can’t wait to spend. Save this for a Saturday night rental or a rainy day.

-Daniel, Bucket Reviews