...due largely to Brittany Murphy it is highly entertaining. I can't say I disagree factually with the scores of dire reviews this movie has received. Yes it is banal, clichéd, unoriginal, predictable and soppy. But the amount of gusto Brittany Murphy put into her performance (probably knowing in her heart that the script was pretty ropey) made this film fun to watch.
Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers each have twice as many quality jokes in the same running time as Just Married, while covering a lot of similar themes (the litany of accidents and catastrophes that happen to the happy couple, the below-par guy who has to impress the snooty parents of the bride, the clingy ex who gets on great with her dad etc). But whereas the Meet... films show gradually changing interpersonal dynamics as trust is slowly earned, or respect gradually lost (eg how Mr Focker starts off full of love and excitement but gradually gets more and more freaked out and annoyed by "El Stiffo"!), in Just Married one minute the groom's dad is threatening him down the phone, the next he is congratulating him and wishing him well! Similar about-turns and random changes of heart abound in this film resulting in a lack of continuity. Our young lovers jerk violently back and forth between arguing acrimoniously and cooing over each other romantically. It's almost like a series of disjointed sketches with no real flow between them.
But maybe a film can survive on a threadbare, inconsistent plot, if the individual sketches are good and the characterisations appealing. I think that's the case here - as Brittany and Ashton were a real-life couple, the chemistry between them is more authentic than any scripted contrivances, and I think that shines through and makes the film feel good.
So what we have here is a technically mediocre at best movie, but still an entertaining one, if you're dragged along to see it by your better half. Scarface it is not though! And finally, after seeing this film I felt genuinely upset and tearful thinking about the tragic loss of Brittany Murphy. No matter what people think of Just Married, it's a great way to remember her as a funny, lively, very attractive young actress who virtually saved this movie. God only knows what this would have been like without her.
Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers each have twice as many quality jokes in the same running time as Just Married, while covering a lot of similar themes (the litany of accidents and catastrophes that happen to the happy couple, the below-par guy who has to impress the snooty parents of the bride, the clingy ex who gets on great with her dad etc). But whereas the Meet... films show gradually changing interpersonal dynamics as trust is slowly earned, or respect gradually lost (eg how Mr Focker starts off full of love and excitement but gradually gets more and more freaked out and annoyed by "El Stiffo"!), in Just Married one minute the groom's dad is threatening him down the phone, the next he is congratulating him and wishing him well! Similar about-turns and random changes of heart abound in this film resulting in a lack of continuity. Our young lovers jerk violently back and forth between arguing acrimoniously and cooing over each other romantically. It's almost like a series of disjointed sketches with no real flow between them.
But maybe a film can survive on a threadbare, inconsistent plot, if the individual sketches are good and the characterisations appealing. I think that's the case here - as Brittany and Ashton were a real-life couple, the chemistry between them is more authentic than any scripted contrivances, and I think that shines through and makes the film feel good.
So what we have here is a technically mediocre at best movie, but still an entertaining one, if you're dragged along to see it by your better half. Scarface it is not though! And finally, after seeing this film I felt genuinely upset and tearful thinking about the tragic loss of Brittany Murphy. No matter what people think of Just Married, it's a great way to remember her as a funny, lively, very attractive young actress who virtually saved this movie. God only knows what this would have been like without her.