Directed by Dennis Dugan. Starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Nick Swarsdon, Brooklyn Decker 12A cert, gen release, 116 min
WHERE DO we stand with Jennifer Aniston? In the first few years of her movie career it was reasonable to argue that, despite the frequent wretchedness of the material, she still came across as a gifted comic actor. Sadly, as the films got worse, Aniston’s mug took on the status of a warning klaxon. Here be fluff!
You wouldn't expect much from a collaboration between Aniston and the terrifying Adam Sandler, and you'd be right. Ignore the fact that Just Go With Itis adapted from Cactus Flower, a 1969 comedy written by the immortal IAL Diamond, and study, instead, the name on the director's chair. To be fair, Dennis Dugan (for it is he), Sandler's house director, does improve on earlier atrocities such as You Don't Mess With the Zohan and Grown Ups. He could hardly do otherwise.
Sandler plays a plastic surgeon who has devised a fool-proof method for engineering one-night stands. In this strange corner of LA, young women seem inordinately attracted to men in bad marriages. With this in mind, Adam, though single, keeps a wedding ring on his wooing hand. Some stuff happens. Then he falls in love and – blame the Dugan/Sandler axis if this makes no sense – needs somebody to pretend to be his estranged wife. Aniston, his receptionist, steps up to the plate.
An early sign of the film’s tone- deafness arrives when, after allowing her boss to pay for posh clothes and a fresh hairdo, Aniston progresses (not for the last time) in slow motion towards the hero and his unwanted girlfriend. “What the? Can that be? Is it really?” he says. This is, for the sane viewer, the first clue that, to this point, Aniston was attempting to appear dowdy. Come to think of it, there was half a hair out of place in the opening sequences.
Anyway, the chemistry between Sandler and Aniston, both a little more mature than the average romcom star, is reasonably effective. There is also a nice bit of stunt casting (look away from the cast list above) in the film's protracted second half. Still, you couldn't really argue that Just Go With Itreclaims its stars from the dumpster. Not as awful as it might have been, though. DONALD CLARKE
