I’ll at least say this much for Just Go With It: It’s a thoughtful title. Given the low bar set by previous match-ups between Adam Sandler and his director pal Dennis Dugan, it makes sense that they would warn us, before the movie even starts, to simply give up, throw in the towel, and resign ourselves to the fact that yep, it’s another stinker. Don’t try to fight it. Just go with it.
Or, don’t. Dugan and Sandler seem to have one of those toxic relationships that brings out the worst in each other, and their previous collaborations have included the painfully unfunny and crass Grown Ups and the lowbrow, semi-political I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Just Go With It is, thankfully, a markedly funnier movie than either of those, and in its best moments—particularly in its final third—it takes on a stronger resemblance to some of Sandler’s sweeter romantic comedies, particularly 50 First Dates. But of course, this is about the faintest praise one could muster.
If Grown Ups was a Sandler movie so lazy it made you wonder if the guy was even trying anymore, and Chuck and Larry was completely muddled in its cake-and-eat-it convergence of bawdy, homophobic humor and tolerance-espousing politics, Just Go With It is perhaps a bit closer to the latter. In the end, the movie tries to be a sort of heartfelt story about the importance of being honest, both with others and yourself, but the point is buried under lowest-common-denominator humor and a screenplay crawling with clichÉs.
This time, Sandler—playing a variation on the same character he’s played so many times before—is a plastic surgeon by the name of Danny, who had his heart broken just minutes before his own wedding and ever since has refused to get close enough to anyone that could hurt him again. So he keeps his wedding ring on at all times; it seems to be the perfect tool for ensnaring gullible women, and the perfect excuse for leaving them once he tires of their company.
He thinks his latest prospect, Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), is different. He is, in fact, convinced that they have a real connection, that he could spend the rest of his life with her. Trouble is, she’s seen the ring. And so the movie becomes one of those stories—like, I don’t know, Mrs. Doubtfire, perhaps?—in which the entire thing is hung on the central character maintaining a double life, an elaborate lie that we all know is too flimsy for the other characters to possibly believe, and yet they do anyway. Specifically, he tells the indignant Palmer that yes, he is married, but soon to be divorced. Somehow, this makes it all okay in her eyes. So they continue their romance, with Danny luring his receptionist, Katherie (Jennifer Aniston) into posing as his fake/outgoing wife. Her kids get involved, and his cousin Eddie (Nick Swardson). They all go to Hawaii. Things get out of hand. So it goes.
The real regret here is that they couldn’t have just made a more straightforward romantic comedy, cutting out basically everything here save for Sandler and Aniston. I’m not spoiling anything when I tell you that their characters develop certain feelings for one another; if you’ve ever seen a rom-com before—really, if you’ve ever seen a movie before—that doesn’t surprise you. But when the film shifts its focus to them and their interactions with one another, it’s surprisingly sweet and tender. They have good chemistry, and Aniston, in particular, is really charming. The 1½ star rating for this movie? It’s all for Aniston, and for the film’s much-improved final third.
Everything else? Not so much. I began to doubt the movie’s pure intentions early on, when Decker (a swimsuit model) enters the picture wearing a see-through dress that leaves very little to the imagination, and the rest of the plot is constructed as one flimsy excuse after another to get her into a bikini (or less). The camera pans over her body in a way that suggests the studio was zealous to rope teen boys into the theater, and it’s all rather shameless. Meanwhile, Aniston’s character is supposed to be fairly plain-looking and unattractive, so they give her a pair of glasses and a ponytail and expect us to find her unappealing. But then they sort of give up that approach, and they put her in a bikini, too.
There are a couple of lowbrow, kid-related gags that bring terrifying flashbacks to Grown Ups—Sandler gets hit in the groin, then sneezed on by a kid, etc.—and Nick Swardson’s character is kept busy with a silly German accent, a scene in which he gives CPR to a sheep, and one rather perplexing moment in which he sleeps with his hand in a toilet bowl. Nicole Kidman, of all people, plays a small role here, and the approach taken to her character seems to be based on the idea that seeing a famous, generally rather serious actor slumming it and acting silly is a big hoot; admittedly, a scene of Kidman and Aniston competing in a hula contest is fairly amusing. But her husband is played by Dave Matthews, and the movie runs out of funny things to do with him early on, so, completely out of nowhere, they decide to make him gay, resulting this time in a terrifying flashback to the homophobic vulgarity of Chuck and Larry.
And what a shame. This is, in all fairness, one of the better Sandler vehicles of late, funny enough in places and with a few moments of real feeling. Too bad that for the rest of the movie, the bar’s been set far too low.
Talk About It
Discussion starters- What does this film tell us about lying—specifically, how one lie leads to another?
- What is the attitude toward women taken by Danny? How would you characterize the attitude toward women taken by the film as a whole?
- What is the attitude toward divorce? Specifically, what is Palmer’s perspective on divorce? How has divorce affected the two children?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerJust Go With It is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, partial nudity, brief drug references, and language. There are some four-letter words sprinkled throughout and a few references to “pill-popping,” some in the context of children. But the real concern is the pervasive sexual humor. There are loads of sexual references, and the near-constant presence of women wearing skimpy, see-through, and otherwise revealing clothing. We also see a brief glimpse of the top of a woman’s bare backside, and a topless woman is seen from behind.
Photos © Sony Pictures.
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