“What Happens in Vegas” is an unoriginal and poorly executed combination of chick-flick favorites. It borrows everything from the infamous dress scene in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” to the plotline of “The Holiday” but fails to produce a lovable and entertaining story.
After Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) is dumped and Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) is fired from his job, they each decide to leave their problems behind and head for Las Vegas. Due to a computer error, the two strangers find themselves sharing the same hotel room.
Joy is a clone of the high-strung and career-obsessed woman Diaz plays in “The Holiday.” Her perfect job, perfect apartment and perfect wardrobe make it clear that her life has been strategically orchestrated every step of the way.
After taking care of the hotel room mix-up, she is ready to proceed with her previously determined schedule of events. However, when carefree and impulsive Jack criticizes her inability to have fun, Joy throws the rulebook out the window and joins him for a night in Vegas.
Joy realizes that she may have thrown the rulebook a little too far when she wakes up to find that she and Jack got married. An additional twist is added when they mutually win a $3 million jackpot and an annulment no longer looks like a simple and quick fix to this horrible mistake.
Forced by court to live together for six months before splitting the money and parting ways, Joy and Jack do everything they can to make the other’s life completely unbearable. As any viewer can predict through their mutual disdain for each other, the two end up falling in love and reconsider whether or not they should end their marriage.
The predictability of the plot isn’t the cause of its downfall; its off-target humor, poorly written script and mediocre acting do the damage.
Diaz fails to deliver a quality performance. Known for her fun-loving personality and her uncanny ability to laugh at herself, she is an unconvincing type-A, schedule-keeping perfectionist. Diaz fails to be charming and adorable; instead she comes across annoying and immature. While Kutcher’s performance is much more believable, the weak script gives him little to work with. The interaction between Diaz and Kutcher resembles childish banter, and most of the humor is physical, not witty.
The plot is built around Joy and Jack’s various attempts to undermine the other and does not develop throughout the course of the film. So much time is dedicated to their increasingly intricate plans to hurt each other that their relationship is unable to evolve from one of hate to one of love. The moment in the plot when the leads realize that they have feelings for each other is extremely sudden, and the timing is abrupt.
The audience learns little more about the leading characters than the superficial basics, and “What Happens in Vegas” fails to produce a truly memorable scene.
For this trip to Sin City, what happens in Vegas would be better off staying in Vegas.
E-mail Augustine at aaugustine@media.ucla.edu.