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Adam Sandler is no stranger to remaking and/or re-thinking better movies (Mr. Deeds and The Longest Yard immediately spring to mind) and does it again with a 2011 comedy called Just Go With It; however, this time he is only partial successful as his attempt to make the story original fails due to a severely overly-complicated story that weakens the original premise, not to mention some problematic casting.
This film takes its basic premise from the 1969 comedy Cactus Flower, which starred Walter Matthau and made a star out of Goldie Hawn and won her an Oscar. Sandler plays Danny, a commitment-phobic plastic surgeon who becomes serious about a beautiful teacher (Brooklyn Decker) who thinks Danny is in the middle of a divorce so Danny enlists the aid of his straight-laced assistant, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), who agrees to pose as his soon-to-be ex-wife and have her kids pretend to be theirs in order to pave the way clear for Danny to be with this girl he thinks he loves, but this elaborate ruse, which includes a trip to Hawaii for all the players involved, eventually leads to Danny and Katherine discovering that they have been burying feelings they have had for each other for years.
This story worked in '69 mainly because the assistant, wonderfully played by Ingrid Bergman, was believable as the straight-laced, plain-Jane assistant harboring the secret crush on her boss, but we never buy Aniston in the plain-Jane role, from the first of two slo-mo entrances director Dennis Dugan mounts for the actress. It's pretty much impossible to accept Aniston as the secretary who takes off her glasses, takes her hair out of a bun and suddenly becomes desirable.
Allen Loeb and Timothy Dowling's screenplay over-complicates the original story by throwing in a nemesis from Katherine's past (Nicole Kidman) who just happens to be in Hawaii the same time as Danny and Katherine with her new fiancee (Dave Matthews), who put added pressure on Katherine to make this charade work, but makes the story that we actually carry about even harder to focus on.
There are a couple of things that do work here: Adam Sandler finally puts his angry man-child character that has worked for him for so many years on the back burner and actually plays an adult, though accepting this guy as a plastic surgeon is a bit of a stretch. The other thing that works here is the chemistry between Sandler and Aniston...I couldn't even believe it as I watched, but I found myself rooting for these two ten minutes into the movie and didn't mind tolerating the journey to their final discovery of each other.
Unfortunately, with the exception of Dave Matthews, the rest of the cast is beyond annoying...Kidman is wasted, Decker is wooden in the role that made Goldie Hawn a star, and Bailee Madison's performance as Aniston's daughter, an aspiring actress who likes to speak with an English accent, makes you want to punch her in the face. But if you're a Sandler or Aniston fan, the chemistry they generate onscreen works and will make this movie worth sitting through...once.
Adam Sandler is no stranger to remaking and/or re-thinking better movies (Mr. Deeds and The Longest Yard immediately spring to mind) and does it again with a 2011 comedy called Just Go With It; however, this time he is only partial successful as his attempt to make the story original fails due to a severely overly-complicated story that weakens the original premise, not to mention some problematic casting.
This film takes its basic premise from the 1969 comedy Cactus Flower, which starred Walter Matthau and made a star out of Goldie Hawn and won her an Oscar. Sandler plays Danny, a commitment-phobic plastic surgeon who becomes serious about a beautiful teacher (Brooklyn Decker) who thinks Danny is in the middle of a divorce so Danny enlists the aid of his straight-laced assistant, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), who agrees to pose as his soon-to-be ex-wife and have her kids pretend to be theirs in order to pave the way clear for Danny to be with this girl he thinks he loves, but this elaborate ruse, which includes a trip to Hawaii for all the players involved, eventually leads to Danny and Katherine discovering that they have been burying feelings they have had for each other for years.
This story worked in '69 mainly because the assistant, wonderfully played by Ingrid Bergman, was believable as the straight-laced, plain-Jane assistant harboring the secret crush on her boss, but we never buy Aniston in the plain-Jane role, from the first of two slo-mo entrances director Dennis Dugan mounts for the actress. It's pretty much impossible to accept Aniston as the secretary who takes off her glasses, takes her hair out of a bun and suddenly becomes desirable.
Allen Loeb and Timothy Dowling's screenplay over-complicates the original story by throwing in a nemesis from Katherine's past (Nicole Kidman) who just happens to be in Hawaii the same time as Danny and Katherine with her new fiancee (Dave Matthews), who put added pressure on Katherine to make this charade work, but makes the story that we actually carry about even harder to focus on.
There are a couple of things that do work here: Adam Sandler finally puts his angry man-child character that has worked for him for so many years on the back burner and actually plays an adult, though accepting this guy as a plastic surgeon is a bit of a stretch. The other thing that works here is the chemistry between Sandler and Aniston...I couldn't even believe it as I watched, but I found myself rooting for these two ten minutes into the movie and didn't mind tolerating the journey to their final discovery of each other.
Unfortunately, with the exception of Dave Matthews, the rest of the cast is beyond annoying...Kidman is wasted, Decker is wooden in the role that made Goldie Hawn a star, and Bailee Madison's performance as Aniston's daughter, an aspiring actress who likes to speak with an English accent, makes you want to punch her in the face. But if you're a Sandler or Aniston fan, the chemistry they generate onscreen works and will make this movie worth sitting through...once.