Just Go With It (2011)

Directed by: Dennis Dugan | 116 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Nick Swardson, Brooklyn Decker, Bailee Madison, Griffin Gluck, Dave Matthews, Kevin Nealon, Rachel Dratch, Allen Covert, Dan Patrick, Minka Kelly, Jackie Sandler, Rakefet Abergel

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston have known each other half their lives, but in ‘Just Go With It’, from Sandler’s production company Happy Madison, they can be seen together for the first time in a film. The click between the two both in front of and behind the camera is the greatest asset of this rombow, which – thanks to scenes in tropical Hawaii – could just as well have been called ‘Grown Ups 2’. ‘Just Go With It’ is a remake of ‘Cactus Flower’ (1969) which is again based on a play.

Sandler plays Danny, a successful plastic surgeon who devours more women than surgical gloves. Twenty years ago, his betrothed was heartbroken, whose deception he discovered just before marrying her. In a bar, Danny discovered that the wedding ring, which he had thoughtlessly put on, came in very handy when picking up beautiful girls. When he reveals that he is entangled in a very unhappy marriage (“My wife beats me”, “My wife is walking”), most ladies take pity and fall for him like a rock. He has been living this life for twenty years now. One of the few who knows about it is his assistant Katherine Murphy (Jennifer Aniston). Katherine herself is divorced and has a daughter who is in her ‘British accent phase’ and a son who has to do a big errand all the time and whose biggest dream is to swim with the dolphins in Hawaii.

At a party, Danny meets the much younger, stunning Palmer (Brooklyn Decker). The two click immediately and after a romantic night they want to keep in touch. In fact, Danny sees himself spending the rest of his life with Palmer. But then Palmer sees Danny’s wedding ring. Danny panics and tells a story that he is in a divorce, but Palmer does not have enough of that message. He just needs to come up with evidence. Her determination has a reason; She went through her parents’ nasty divorce as a child and is determined not to be “the other woman.” Danny turns to Katherine with the bizarre proposal to play his almost ex-wife Devlin. Everything seems to be going well, but then Katherine’s daughter Maggie calls, and Palmer thinks Danny and Devlin/Katherine also have children…

‘Just Go With It’ is yet another proof that lying won’t get you very far. Danny, and later Katherine, find themselves in more and more trouble for being dishonest, and the lies pile up to the point where they almost have to keep an alphabetical reference book to keep from betraying themselves. It makes for fun situations, especially when the real Devlin (Nicole Kidman in an unusual, but fun role for her) also turns out to be staying at the Hawaiian resort, with her husband Ian Maxtone Jones (Dave Matthews), inventor of the iPod. … Devlin was Katherine’s ‘frenemy’ during her studies and because Katherine doesn’t want to lose face, she jumps at the chance to show that she is married to the successful plastic surgeon. Unfortunately, ‘Just Go With It’ also contains a lot of lame and flat jokes, especially in the beginning of the film (a woman with two uneven eyebrows, a woman with two uneven breasts, banal jokes about penis enlargement). Later, Danny’s cousin Eddie (Nick Swardson) creates some unfunny situations with his weird German accent and profession as an online sheep seller. Surprisingly, Sandler is a bit more moderate in his role and perhaps that’s why he likes it so much as a man who slowly comes to realize that what he has for years has within reach what he really wants. It helps that Aniston is his co-star: the two make an entertaining pair of partners-in-crime and you really love to see the two get together. It is difficult to accept that the reality is too often lost sight of: it is simply unbelievable to see Jennifer ‘famous haircut’ Aniston sitting in a barber chair with a desperate hairdresser who claims that there is hardly anything left of her haircut. . Just as it is not realistic that Palmer, a math teacher, of course, takes all the illogic in the story that is pinned on her sleeve.

Fortunately, the level of ‘Grown Ups’, the previous Dennis Dugan-Adam Sandler collaboration, is matched, but ‘Just Go With It’ remains a film that will only be appreciated by Sandler fans. If you don’t like the flat, sometimes crude humor of this American comedian, you will have trouble keeping your toes straight.