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“My tolerance for these continued shenanigans is fading here!” sighs Jennifer Aniston in Adam Sandler’s new vehicle, a sentiment that will doubtless be shared by those whose patience for his man-child shtick ran out around the time of The Wedding Singer.
Just GoWith It, to be fair, is not his worst, bolstered as it is by sturdy foundations (1969 oscar-winner Cactus Flower) and one enjoyable supporting turn.
Yet it’s still pretty sloppy, its nominal story (commitment-phobe courts beauty with the aid of loyal Girl Friday) taking second place to off-colour jibes targeting overweight Hispanics, gay crimpers and unfortunate victims of botched plastic surgery.
Cosmetic surgeon Danny (Sandler) sees plenty of the latter when he’s not wooing women by pretending to be unhappily married. After falling for Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), he’s forced to embark on a complex deception that requires his single-mother assistant Katherine (Aniston) to play his shrewish ex-wife.
Further duplicities ensue when his randy cousin (Nick Swardson) joins them on a trip to Hawaii and Jen runs into her old high-school nemesis (Nicole Kidman). But then Danny realises his true love has been under his nose all along…
That Kidman would star in a film in which one character’s features are rendered immobile by Botox is tickling in itself, as is the exaggerated cockney accent Aniston’s daughter (the impressive Bailee Madison) adopts as Adam’s bogus progeny.
Too often, alas, Dennis Dugan’s caper just isn’t funny enough, Jen and Nicole’s hula dance-off being among several set-pieces which flop.
Better than Grown Ups? Sure. Then again, that’s not much of a recommendation.
A few laughs, a lot of slack and some mild xenophobia are the order of the day in the latest so-so romp to come off the Sandler production line.
Neil Smith is a freelance film critic who has written for several publications, including Total Film. His bylines can be found at the BBC, Film 4 Independent, Uncut Magazine, SFX, Heat Magazine, Popcorn, and more.
