Just Married is a surprisingly watchable romantic comedy with old-fashioned sensibilities - that with a little more investment in the script and far less reliance of stupid physical gags - might have been one of the better comedies of the year.

Ashton Kutcher plays a part-time radio traffic-man/sports nut who happens to catch the eye of the lovely Brittany Murphy, who just so happens to be the very wealthy daughter of a sports team magnate. Most of the supporting cast (her parents and siblings, her ex-boyfriend and his best pal) are a poorly drawn one-dimensional lot, but this doesn't hurt the film because it is the real chemistry between Kutcher and Murphy that makes this unlikely jalopy zip down the road.

Kutcher and Murphy are a perfectly matched pair and they literally light each other up. Murphy is a born comedienne and her goofball charm all but eclipses the wacky Kutcher. It should be noted that during the filming of Just Married Kutcher and Murphy were engaged in an off-screen romance, and at what stage they were at with this in any given scene is anybody's guess and makes the proceedings more interesting than they might have otherwise been.

The major problems that beset this film is that the writer and director are relative rookies with extremely weak resumes. The director is Shawn Levy, who directed the similarly weak-but-harmless "Big Fat Liar" and it written by Sam Harper, whose only other credit is "Rookie of the Year" nearly 10 years ago. These guys just didn't know when to end a scene or even how to end a scene. Alot of scenes would run there course come to no point and then just sort of fade. Again had they given two really good writer six months with this thing it really could have been a winner.

The moments in this film where no one is being blown up by a hairdryer of getting their foot stuck in a 747 toilet, are actually quite fun. Again the chemistry between the leads carries this thing, despite the dreadful barrage of pratfalls and cheap-gags. Another thing that makes the film endearing rather than annoying is that it champions old-fashioned values, honesty, fidelity and the importance of marriage. No matter how bad things get on this doomed Honeymoon, you know these two will eventually end up back together.

They become so disenchanted with one another over the course of this disastrous European trip that at the end they start a fairly mean-spirited exchange of pranks. But even these smacked of the kind of abuse brothers will pull on each other - there was a loving sort of sadistic glee about them. The honeymoon runs a little long and more than half of it was just one disaster after another followed by a catty exchange of words. This hurt the film too badly for me to give it any more than a marginal recommendation. But if you can forgive it it's flaws, it's a movie that will entertain you.