Review: Just Go With It

Adam Sandler plays a guy whose wife cheats on him, and so he spends the next 20 or so years picking up chicks in bars by still wearing his wedding ring (a ploy stolen from an episode of “Seinfeld”, it seems) and spinning a bunch of BS. I should point out that at this time, Sandler’s character has a Cyrano/Pinocchio-esque schnoz too. Even the first time he tried to woo women with the ring, he was straying from the truth of what happened with his wedding (And on one occasion he even claims to have been physically abused by his spouse!). Now a successful plastic surgeon, he meets a beautiful young woman (played by model Brooklyn Decker) and works his magic on her. He’s actually not wearing the ring at the time, but she finds it in his bag, and is mad as hell. So what does Sandler do? Lie his arse off of course, ‘coz hey, telling the truth is totally ‘homo’, right Mr. Sandler? He purports to have an estranged ex-wife, and in order to do away with any suspicions, he proves this to Decker by enlisting the aid of his long-suffering assistant Jennifer Aniston to help in the deceit by pretending to be his bitch of an ex. Oh, and he uses Aniston’s kids to play his own kids. But these kids (Griffin Gluck and Bailee Madison) aren’t stupid, and try to manipulate the situation themselves by suggesting to Decker that Sandler promised to take them to Hawaii. So of course, Sandler, Decker, the kids, plus Aniston and her new European husband Dolph Lundgren (who is really Sandler’s loser pal Nick Swardson with a crap accent and thick glasses) go off to Hawaii for the most pointless charade you can imagine. ‘Coz, it’s not like telling the truth would ever be a good idea, right? Oh, so there’d be no movie then? Hmmmm. OK then. “SNL” alum Rachel Dratch and Kevin Nealon play a couple of Sandler’s goofy clients, whilst Nicole Kidman plays an old rival of Aniston’s who turns up in Hawaii, and is now married to a complete tool (played by Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band). Complications arise from this considering Kidman plays a character named Devlin, which is the fake name Aniston came up with as Sandler’s ‘wife’.

Although it’s meant to be a remake of the Walter Matthau flick “Cactus Flower” (or at least one of the two stage versions that inspired that film), this 2011 comedy from Dennis Dugan (“Happy Gilmore”, “Big Daddy”, “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”) has writer Allan Loeb’s name all over it. Not surprisingly, he indeed is co-writer of the film, along with Timothy Dowling (the much funnier “Role Models”), and a mentioning of the original I.A.L. Diamond script. Loeb’s contribution is completely obvious, as he already showed in “The Switch” and “The Dilemma”, he’s obsessed with comedies based on stupid people telling stupid lies unnecessarily and then continuing with the lie, piling on more lies just for the convenience of the plot, and at the expense of anything resembling fucking reality (Fair’s fair, Will Gluck’s overrated “Easy A” had a similarly inept plot based on unnecessary lies by people smart enough to know better). It takes me out of the film entirely, and for the most part, the rest of this film wasn’t much good anyway. In fact, the only source of humour for me was Aniston’s trip to the hair salon, which might not have even been an intentional joke (Kevin Nealon was worth a smile or two, though, as the most Botoxed man on Earth. Unfortunately Rachel Dratch just played Rachel Dratch with a wonky eyebrow).

The rest is the pits, mixing “Cactus Flower”, Allan Loeb idiocy (his worst film yet), and Adam Sandler juvenilia to make for one big worthless experience (It’s better than Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”, however). The combination just doesn’t work, and that’s without mentioning Aniston’s completely unlikeable, irritating children. Actress Bailee Madison (in a thoroughly unbearable performance) deserves special mention for mangling a cockney accent to the point where it’s so awful and unbelievable that it makes Decker a complete moron for being fooled, to say nothing of the fact that it isn’t remotely funny. I don’t know if Ms. Madison had a dialect coach, but if she did, they should be fired for giving her a cockney accent ten times worse than Dick Van Dyke tried years ago. Oh, and apparently Nicole Kidman is under the impression that she’s funny. She’s not, and it’s almost as embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch as when Gwyneth Paltrow was on “SNL”. Besides, why have the porcelain-like Kidman in a film like this and not make a whole bunch of Botox jokes at her expense? It seemed like a wasted opportunity to me there (Oh shut up, do you see any lines on her forehead?).

Sandler and Aniston might potentially share chemistry (apparently in real-life they’ve known each other for about 20 years), but one of the biggest problems with the film is that Sandler’s character is such an unfailing douchebag that it’s entirely improbable that Aniston (whose character arc somewhat resembles the same arc she played in “The Switch”) would have any interest in him whatsoever. Thus when you add in the fact that model Brooklyn Decker is at least a superficially good match for Sandler’s plastic surgeon character (and she also comes across as the sweetest girl in the world), the film’s trajectory is in complete contrast with what the audience wants. Well, to be perfectly honest, I would’ve been fine with Sandler not scoring at all given his character lies his arse off for 99.9% of the film. Meanwhile, screwball/farce potential is wasted when Aniston (who in my opinion has never given a performance that wasn’t just Rachel from “Friends” with a different name- feel free to prove me wrong) is forced to assume two different identities at one point in the film, but the resulting and obvious scene where she is forced to play the two characters at the same time never actually arises. What the hell was the point then? When you consider that one of her characters shares the same name as Nicole Kidman’s character, I assumed that was the whole damn point of it. Then again, considering Sandler gets to have both Brooklyn Decker (the real-life Mrs. Andy Roddick) and Jennifer Aniston as love interests, I’m surprised he didn’t get to bang Kidman too. Someone needs to tell Sandler he’s not that hot, one of these days, or at least tell him to stop compensating for whatever he’s lacking.

This comedy just isn’t for me. It relies almost entirely on a series of lies and distortions of the truth that need not have been told except that the film would cease to exist without them. I’m fine with this film ceasing to exist, believe me. It’s the pits, and director Dugan, writers Allan Loeb and Timothy Dowling, and star Sandler (who has made several good films like “The Wedding Singer”, “Little Nicky”, “Punch-Drunk Love”, “50 First Dates”, and especially “Funny People”, but more often appears in disappointing projects) all share the blame.

Rating: D+