What Happens in Vegas film review

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WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS

We all love a good rom-com, if only to indulge in the age-old battle of the sexes. The joy of seeing a mismatched couple tearing strips off each other is arguably greater than the inevitability they will live happily ever after.

Sadly Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz's latest offering What Happens in Vegas is a bit of a damp squib as far as the war of the sexes goes - and is in danger of being a washout altogether were it not for the film's supporting cast who arguably steal the show from under the noses of the main leads.

New Yorker Jack (Kutcher) gets fired from his job in the family business and decides to let loose in Vegas to commiserate with his lawyer buddy Hater (Robe Corddry). Meanwhile across the city Joy (Diaz) gets dumped by her fiancé and has the exact same plan, flying to 'Sin City' with her best friend Tipper (Lake Bell). When the two sides unceremoniously meet the fur flies until a hard night partying bonds Joy and Jack together a little too intimately - they wake up the next day to discover they accidentally got married.

In the sober light of day Jack and Joy remember they don't like each other very much - even less so when Jack accidentally wins a $3 million jackpot on Joy's slot machine. When they take their case to court, the disapproving judge decides to make an example of them, ruling that neither gets their half of the money or the annulment they seek unless they try and make their marriage 'work' for 6 months.

Part of the film's problem is that Joy and Jack don't seem particularly mismatched in the first place (Diaz is unconvincing as an uptight city trader to Jack's aimless party boy) and their one-upmanship battles to expose each other as a bad spouse - and thus be awarded the full payout - are poor and anti-climactic. All this amounts to not much 'com' for the 'rom' and it's left to sidekicks Hater and Tipper to deliver the laughs, which they do in a series of terse, quality ripostes that mange to be utterly plausible and strangely compelling at the same time.

By the time Joy and Jack do get together you care less for this chocolate-box couple and their all-to-predictable happy ever after and more for the two relatively unknown secondary characters, whose peculiar brand of chemistry is only explained in flashback till just before the credits roll.

Kate Coffey