What Happens In Vegas - Review

Director: Tom Vaughan
Writer: Dana Fox
Starring: Ashton Kucher/Cameron Diaz
Runtime: 1 hr 38 minutes

Critics hate a comedy because there's nothing to pontificate about after they've seen it. With dramas, you can talk all day about character development, plot and subplot, existential meaning, redemption, symbolism, values, political commentary, so forth. Criticizing a drama lets you sound smarter than the director and writer.

With comedy, there's only one thing that matters: laughter. This drives critics nuts because no matter how much you point out There's Something About Mary's flaws, people will look at you like you're a headcase: the movie made them laugh. Done deal.

I wouldn't be surprised if the critics don't like What Happens In Vegas, because it's a movie built upon an implausible concept, and there's holes in the plot the size of the Grand Canyon, plus it get romantically sappy towards the end. But to the critics' dismay, the movie has one thing going for it: it makes you laugh.

In Vegas, Jack Fuller (Ashton Kucher) and Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) are two New York strangers that get a bum deal. Jack is fired by his father because Jack refuses to take his job seriously, and Joy is dumped by her fiancee because she takes things too seriously. Their antidote for the bad news is to take a trip to Vegas with their best friends. Once in town, Jack and Joy meet, party, and get wasted. In the morning when she wakes up, Joy find a note taped to her mirror: "Wifey, we're downstairs having breakfast." On her finger is a two-bit wedding band.

The two of them decide to seek an annulment as soon as possible, but fate steps in. During their morning discussion, Jack uses one of Joy's quarters to play a slot machine, and he ends up hitting the jackpot. Three million bucks.

You can guess what happens next. Joy says the cash is hers, and Jack says the cash is his. But in divorce court, the judge (Dennis Miller) has different ideas, sentencing them to "6 months of hard marriage," at the end of which, perhaps he'll see who deserves the cash.

That's a bogus concept. It would never fly in real life. And...who cares?

The reason Vegas works is because the actors are into it whole hog. They believe it. Kucher and Diaz have very good chemistry together, and many of their scenes are literally just that: scenes. They don't connect the plot in any way, except to show how funny or hard married life can be. Time in the bathroom. Toilet seat up-down training. Man's hand in pants while he watches TV and eats popcorn.

The movie is perfectly cast. Jack's best friend, played by Rob Corddy, has some great lines, and is very good as the slimy lawyer-buddy. Lake Bell is equally good as Joy's friend, and has most of the best cynical put-downs in the flick. She reminds me very much of Katherine Keener, and I'll bet she does just as well if she keeps taking good, funny roles. Queen Latifah and Treat Williams also have cameos, and they make them work.

Something the movie rarely touches upon is sex, and I think it's a good choice. Let's be real: who wouldn't mind being forced to live with Cameron Diaz for 6 months? That sounds like a sentence made in beer buddy heaven. But if the movie had bogged down into a silly flick about Kucher trying to sleep with Diaz, it would have lost all of its charm. Instead, the movie does find some poignancy while not losing decent laughs.

Cameron Diaz, by the way, has never looked more beautiful. If the guys need an excuse to see this chick flick, then Diaz in lingerie ought to do the trick.

All in all, a very satisfying romantic comedy that will make you laugh. See it.