A couple pretending to be divorced

Just Go With It (2011)
Certified: 12
Duration: 110 minutes
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Bailee Madison, Griffin Gluck and Nicole Kidman
KRS release

Adam Sandler has had 10 movies that have all grossed more than $100 million each at the US box-office.

Just Go With It will probably continue this trend seeing that it presents more of the same for this actor: Non-demanding entertainment that is given more “oomph” due to the fact that Adam Sandler is so damn likable.

He manages to make romantic movies that have enough romantic zing to appeal to women (getting Jennifer Aniston on board is a good tactic) and rude and sexy enough to lure in the boys.

Adam Sandler plays Danny, a man who as a youth had been stood up at the altar, an event which has had quite some effect on his beliefs and on how he handles situations of the heart.

Today he is a plastic surgeon working in the chic area of Beverly Hills, and doesn’t seem to have a problem with hitching up on casual relationships. This is due to the fact that he has an infallible pick-up line.

He is always telling the same sob story: He is married, and he wears a wedding ring to prove it but his wife beats him up, and it is this marriage gone wrong that is sinking him to despair.

That is until he meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) who is beautiful and talented and does not need the ruse to make an effect on her. However, by mistake she finds the “false” wedding ring he usually uses to lure woman into bed and so he opts to tell her that he is currently going through a divorce. She wants to believe him but to do that she first must meet his former wife.

Thus he convinces his assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be the wife that he is divorcing, complete with her two children (Bailee Madison, Griffin Gluck) pretending he is the father and they the children.

By hook or by crook the kids manage to convince him to take them to Hawaii on holiday together with both Katherine and Palmer.

At the resort they run into Devlin (Nicole Kidman), a former rival of Katherine, and thus the masquerade that Danny and Katherine are playing is cemented even further and all they have to do is just go withthe flow and let the tall tales grow even taller and taller. Just Go With It is the sixth team up between Adam Sandler and Dennis Dugan.

The film suffers from being overlong and has moments where it strays all over the place.

Dugan sometimes lets Sandler and annoying side-kick Nick Swardson talk aimlessly and with a hint of humour.

Add in the fact that the film also has Nicole Kidman in one of the film’s supporting roles that is so incongruent to her that she is simply unnecessary in the role and begs one to wonder why she was even brought on board this movie in the first place.

Viewers who are out for light entertainment, this is the right movie.

The film benefits from a nice Jennifer Aniston turnout who once again reprises the usual Friends role but she is fine to go with the flow.

Brooklyn Decker is beautiful to look at but she plays the bimbo with a golden heart quite well.

Just Go With It really flies whenever the two child stars are on screen with Bailee Madison, especially with her “fake” British accent being quite a little silver screen darling.

The film works as an advert for Hawaii, as once the location has moved there the film is simply dazzling as a tourist postcard come alive.

Just Go With It sees Adam Sandler re-treading a well worn path for him.

He is giving the audience what they expect of him, avoiding the performances full of depth that he gave in such films as Funny People and Punch Drunk Love and as such this film sees him coasting.

Maybe the audience is getting what it is expecting as after all those films never were really successful but Just Go With It is guaranteed to cash that all important $100 million bucks.

Just Go With It is a remake of the Cactus Flower (1969) that starred Walther Matthau, Ingrid Bergman and Goldie Hawn.