(2009) Against the judgments of others, I nevertheless decided to watch this romantic comedy from writer/director Marc Lawrence, mainly because I reside in Wyoming.

After repeated efforts with apologies and gifts (including purchasing the rights of naming a galaxy after her) at reconciling with his estranged wife, Meryl (Sarah Jessica Parker) - recently recognized for having created the city's premier boutique real-estate firm, Park Avenue Realty - from whom he's been separated for three months following an act of infidelity, Manhattan lawyer Paul Morgan (Hugh Grant) finally secures a dinner date. Afterward he walks with her in the rain to meet with Girard Rabelais, her client, whom they watch fall from a balcony after having been stabbed.

Informed by US Marshal Lasky (Seth Gilliam) that Mr Rabelais was an international arms dealer and that they are now state's witnesses and as such are in danger of being assassinated by a professional killer, Meryl and Paul are provided with protection at their respective residences. But when Meryl's bodyguard gets shot and she narrowly escapes an attempt on her life, Lasky tells them that they will be placed in the witness-protection program.

As a native New Yorker with her own business, Meryl complains about having to leave the city. "Wouldn't you rather live someplace else than die in New York?" asks Lasky. Flown to a temporary, secluded location in Ray, Wyoming, a (fictional) community outside Cody near Yellowstone National Park, under the protection of US Marshal Clay Wheeler (Sam Elliott) and his wife Emma (Mary Steenburgen) on their ranch, Meryl and Paul are given new identities as the Fosters from Chicago, visiting her cousin.

"It's Sarah Palin!" exclaims Meryl, a gregarious vegetarian and member of PETA, as Emma (a member of people who eat tasty animals) approaches, carrying a rifle. The city-bred pair, deprived of phone, computer, and cable TV (but plenty of DVDs with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are available), along with cultural entertainments, remark with trepidation upon the trophy heads decorating their new surroundings, shop at the Bargain Barn (two sweaters for under $10), encounter a bear, ride horses (Meryl expresses apprehension since she says she was thrown from a carousel mount), target practice, play Bingo, dance country-style, and attend the rodeo.

At Annette's, the only eatery in Ray, Meryl complains to the owner, Earl Granger (Wilfred Brimley), about his smoking a cigarette at the table beside her. In the barn as Clay's milking his cows, Meryl inquires: "Which of these is skim?"

Amazed with the quiet (making sleeping difficult) and the star-filled night sky (no light pollution from the city), their feelings rekindled into romance, Meryl repeats to Paul the words of her vows: "'Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.' It's Shakespeare, from our wedding." "Was he there? We never got his gift," replies Paul before responding in kind: "I promise never to take you for granted or utter a word unkind. Never allow my affections to be recanted or stop marveling at your behind. To also marvel at your warmth, your wit, your refusal to condone animal slaughter, your wisdom, your laugh, your inability to boil water. To be your best friend for the rest of my life and to thank the God you're not sure about for fooling you into being my wife."

Still obsessed, like "a neurotic woodpecker," with becoming a mother (when would she have time to raise a child?), infertile Meryl stealthily and unwisely contacts an adoption agency in New York. Of course, the killer finds out where they're hiding and comes looking for them, but the movie never turns (as I'd been dreading) slapstick stupid.

Another romance develops between Meryl's assistant, Jackie Drake (Elisabeth Moss), left to handle the business in her absence, and Paul's clueless aide, Adam Feller (Jesse Liebman).

The dialogue is often pithy, witty, or funny. "If you're ever in New York …," Meryl begins an invitation to the Wheelers, Emma finishes: "Something is terribly wrong."

My principal disappointment was to find out in the end that all of the Wyoming scenes were actually filmed in New Mexico.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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