There are barely enough titter-worthy one-liners in Marc Lawrence's good-natured romantic comedy 'Did You Hear About the Morgans?' to prevent it from sinking under the weight of its clichs. Most of the throwaway witticisms drop from the pursed lips of Hugh Grant, playing Paul Morgan, a New York lawyer with Oxonian airs reluctantly transplanted to a tiny Wyoming town as part of the federal witness protection program. After he and his wife, Meryl (Sarah Jessica Parker), a high-end New York real-estate broker, accidentally see the murder of an international arms dealer and are spotted by the killer (Michael Kelly), they have no choice but to be whisked away to cowboy country under the pseudonyms Paul and Meryl Foster. Their hosts, the laconic, growly voiced U.S. Marshal Clay Wheeler (Sam Elliott) and his rootin'-tootin' cowgirl wife, Emma (Mary Steenburgen), teach the effete city slickers the simpler, more wholesome ways of the West. They also show these spoiled, high-maintenance neurotics how to have a relationship. Their secret? Just shut up and make it work! The sleeping arrangements in the Morgans' temporary refuge are dicey because of one major complication: Paul and Meryl have separated. Meryl won't forgive her husband for a one-night stand, despite his pleading and groveling to be taken back. As she harangues him about his breach of trust, you are acutely aware that the shelf life of Carrie Bradshaw and her knockoffs is on the verge of expiration. Despite Parker's strenuous efforts to charm, Meryl comes across as a shrill, self-centered middle-aged nag. Behavior that appeared kooky and cute at 34 seems pathologically immature a decade later. Grant is more at ease, possibly because of his previous association with Lawrence, who wrote and directed 'Music and Lyrics' and 'Two Weeks Notice,' in which Grant also starred. In the work of Lawrence, whose other credits include collaborating on the screenplays of the two 'Miss Congeniality' films, you know what you're getting: comedy with mostly likable, broadly drawn characters; tart, nonthreatening social satire with sharp enough teeth to leave an impression while not breaking the skin; and well-timed, modestly sophisticated repartee. In plunking upscale blue-state urbanites into red-state territory, 'Did You Hear About the Morgans?' adroitly avoids condescending to either side. The movie's sole political reference is its mention of the 14 Democrats in the overwhelmingly Republican town. That statistic is dropped by Wilford Brimley, playing a grouchy geezer at a local cafe who takes offense when Meryl asks him to direct his cigarette smoke away from her table. 'We're not fond of city people telling us how to live,' he grumbles. Once in Wyoming, Meryl, a vegetarian and a member of PETA, finds herself surrounded by stuffed animal heads in a house whose refrigerator is crammed with meat. Emma, a whiz with a shotgun and an ax, jokes that for her the acronym stands for People Eating Tasty Animals. Wyoming nights are so quiet that Paul remarks, 'I thought I heard my cells dividing.' Consuming a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes makes him worry that he should have an angiogram. He is pathetically inept at chopping wood. The kickback from shooting a gun sends him to the doctor. Such jokes come with enough regularity that just as the movie seems about to fall asleep, a mild comic jolt wakes it up. 'Did You Hear About the Morgans?' belongs more to the Wheelers than to its title characters. Elliott, 65, is everybody's senior-cowboy fantasy: the Marlboro man three decades later, still oozing laid-back virility. Steenburgen's Emma suggests an older, wiser, more grounded Sarah Palin type, comfortable in her skin and her Western gear. PRODUCTIO NOTES: DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? Written and directed by Marc Lawrence; director of photography, Florian Ballhaus; edited by Susan E. Morse; music by Theodore Shapiro; production designer, Kevin Thompson; produced by Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. WITH: Hugh Grant (Paul Morgan), Sarah Jessica Parker (Meryl Morgan), Sam Elliott (Clay Wheeler), Mary Steenburgen (Emma Wheeler), Elisabeth Moss (Jackie), Michael Kelly (Vincent) and Wilford Brimley (Earl Granger). 'Did You Hear About the Morgans?' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some strong language and sexual situations. 