Just Go with It

Just go with it. These four words alone tell us exactly what kind of a movie to expect: dumb, slushy and probably starring a couple of leads like, say, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. So is it really worth watching? Only if you don't mind a repeat of what you've seen countless times before.

Adam Sandler is Danny - an unsightly schmuck complete with Cyrano de Bergerac nose and a wife-to-be who scoffs behind his back. On the discovery that said fiancée doesn't actually love him, Danny heads to the bar to drown his sorrows, only to discover his wedding ring is a veritable babe magnet.

Flash forward a few years, and Danny is a plastic surgeon (first thing on the list has been to get that ridiculous nose fixed). Yet, despite facial reconstruction, he's still using the old ring ruse, along with tall tales about evil wives, to secure bedfellows.

Someone who's skeptical about this method of pulling is Danny's secretary, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston). The "frumpy" fortysomething (actually she's about as frumpy as a Porsche Carrera, but this is Hollywood, folks) warns Danny that this is all going to "bite him in the ass."

On cue, enter schoolteacher and golden-haired hourglass Palmer (Brooklyn Decker). She and Danny click instantly, shag on the beach and decide they're soulmates. But just when everything's looking rosy, Palmer finds the ring and assumes Danny's married. He'll need an elaborate plan to wriggle out of this one.

Just Go with It's plot is flawed from early on, and if you want to enjoy it at all, you'll have to put this fact to the back of your mind. That a man should get his employee and her two kids to indefinitely play the role of his soon-to-be-ex-wife and kids in the name of bagging himself a bit of blonde is blatantly absurd.

Never mind that the truth would soon unravel anyway; who could even fall for such subterfuge in the first place? Well, Palmer could. Not only does she want to meet Danny's wife (Katherine's surprisingly credible alter-ego "Devlin") but she ends up Hawaii-bound on a vacation with the entire broken "family."

Truth be told, Palmer isn't much more than a mannequin around which everyone else fawns and gawps. Amiable enough, the character's still as scantily fleshed-out as her flesh is scantily clad (Ursula Andress enthusiasts will not be disappointed) and subsequently, she's little more than a plot device in a bikini.

Both Sandler and Aniston do what they do best - indeed, what they only ever do at all. Each plays the affable pseudo-geek with a heart of gold and a tiny personality flaw. There is some promising repartee early on, as they rub nipple-numbing cream on to boob-job patients, yet although we know it's in the cards, their love is never really convincing.

In fact, the first time Danny sees Katherine in "that" way is a denigrating "Wowzers!" moment as Aniston strips to reveal a smoking body, and sometimes it's as if Just Go with It confuses being lovable with being a hottie. 

The film is rescued somewhat by the two little gems that are Katherine's kiddies, Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck).

Maggie's ambitions to become an actress are put to the test as she adopts a "British" accent (think Eliza Doolittle meets Bert the chimney sweep) when she first encounters Palmer. OK, it does get a bit tiresome after a while, but the prodigious kid is still the film's greatest asset.

Her brother, meanwhile, is a hard-boiled nipper, with the bargaining qualities of a Mafioso ("Mention that place again, and I'll walk") and the bowel problems of a centenarian.

Needless to say, in Hawaii, things get messy. Danny's demented cousin Eddie (Nick Swardson) comes along for the ride, unfathomably pretending to be a camp German, while Nicole Kidman pops up as Katherine's old frenemy, the "real" Devlin.

Although this allows a few more snatches of high jinks, the cast becomes overpopulated, and therefore not enough is made of the love triangle between Danny and his two potential wives.

Just Go with It isn't as sickly as many modern rom-coms, and is not exactly starved of laughs either. That said, unconvincing emotions and a plot that barely holds together means there are plenty of other screwball comedies you'd be better off watching again.

Will Noble can be reached at
wnoble@praguepost.com