Movies Reviews

Just Go With It – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Feb 11, 2011, 15:20 GMT

A man enlists the help of a woman and her kids to land the woman of his dreams. ...more

Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler are surprisingly simpatico in this comic tribute to the art of lying. Both have suffered a string of reprehensible films over the last few years, but they’ve somehow managed to overcome their bad luck streaks in this charming, saucy and ultimately winning in this romcom French farce.  It’s better than we think.

Sandler’s Danny, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills saddled with patients with some unappealing and unusual physical qualities – cue laughs – but as dopey as it starts, Just Go with It does get better. 

Aniston is Katherine his assistant, a single mother of two adorable tots who is Danny’s friend, confidante and moral compass.  And clearly they are pretty well matched as friends.  They bicker about their loveless lives and wonder how to find that special someone – its Valentine’s season, people! But she’s stuck and he’s miserable.

Furthermore, Danny resorts to deceit to get women, having discovered that a wedding band is like catnip, indicating a romp in the hay with no chance of a serious relationship.   It doesn’t weight particularly on his conscience until one day he meets a tall blonde, blue eyed and very young drink of water named Palmer (Brooklyn Decker).  He imagines himself in love.  Things go swimmingly until she finds a wedding band in his pocket and he can’t explain it.

So, and this is where things get fun, he concocts a giant lie that he’s separated from his wife. Now he needs a wife for show and tell (?)  so he ropes Katherine into his scheme, and her children.  Immoral yes, outrageous and funny, well, yes.  So we’re complicit. 

To keep his plan alive he’s cajoled into taking Katharine and her kids, Palmer and his best friend to Hawaii for a vacation.  He needs his posse to bolster his stories and keep them straight. 

To make things much, much worse, Katherine’s high school nemesis Devlin (Nicole Kidman) shows up at their hotel forcing Katherine to come up with her set of lies.  Kidman is shallow, undignified, crass, big, pretentious and overdone and she is a riot in what amounts to an extended cameo.  This is Kidman’s funniest bit yet – and she’s a tough comedic sell. 

But she goes for broke, hauteur be damned, it pays off and she pretty much steals the film. Her character is married to Ian, the inventor of the iPhone, played by musician Dave Matthews. Another interesting surprise.

Just Go With It has an extra ace in the hole this winter.  As most of us shiver against a brutally stormy and cold season, our gang is doing all they’re doing against the backdrop of gorgeous sunny Hawaii.  Sometimes it’s pleasant to see a movie for art direction: here, it’s almost de riguer to step inside its tropical paradise.
This comic look at very bad behavior pulls no punches; it doesn’t pretend to be about angels.  Despite the themes of lies for personal gain, is entertaining and heart-warming.

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35mm romantic comedy
Written by Allan Loeb, Timothy Dowling et al
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Opens: Feb 11
Runtime: 116 minutes
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for frequent crude and sexual content, partial nudity, brief drug references and language
Country: US
Language: English