It’s hard to go along with 'Just go with it'

Film: Just go with it (U/A)
Director:  Dennis Dugan
Cast:  Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Brooklyn Decker, Dave Matthews, Nick Swardson, Bailee Madison ,Griffin Gluck
Rating: **

Danny Maccabee (Sandler), a wealthy cosmetic surgeon,  is in Hawaii with two kids who aren’t really his own, a woman, Katherine Murphy (Aniston) who isn’t really his ex-wife and oddball Eddie who isn’t really her lover. But what Danny would really, really want is for them to appear that way. Why? He hopes that this elaborate set-up will allay the doubts of bimbo who isn’t (yet) his wife.

Katherine, Danny’s assistant, must pose as a former spouse in one of the ludicrous lengths he goes through to prove to the ditzy and voluptuous N-Synch-loving Palmer Dodge (Decker) that he is a devoted father, and all-round nice guy. The reason why the faux family is in Hawaii is because Maccabee submits to one of the many whims of Katherine’s son Michael (lest he be thought of as a negligent father by his flame).  Danny’s doltish cousin Eddie (Swardson) who, in an attempt to evade some folks he offended, tags along as Dolph Lundgren, a sheep trader by profession

Enter the snooty high-class couple Devlin Adams (Kidman), a high-school companion of Katherine, and her husband, the ‘inventor of the iPod’, Ian Maxtone-Jones (Matthews).  Now, Devlin is the unfortunate name that Danny assumes for Katherine throughout the charade even though she loathes the woman (so much so that she encourages the use of the name as a scatological euphemism with her kids)

Gluck, as the understated young Michael, and Madison, as Maggie, are generally good though the latter, who holds aspirations of becoming an actress replete with an English accent, tends to be a bit patchy especially her over-the-top spontaneous performances .

Both share good chemistry with Sandler who finds himself among his own when put in scenes involving kids.  Swardson’s character could be the funniest thing is the movie but Aniston as the dowdy single mom (yeah, right) Katherine puts up a predictable performance with her shrill presence pushing the film a little beyond the limits of bearability. Matthews teaches us about the meaning of the word self-deprecation while Kidman, in a comic role seems slightly out of place. 

Sandler with his easy-going, bordering-on-sincere delivery that go hand in hand with the stupid brand of humour with which he is associated cannot be forgiven for starring in yet another insipid romantic comedy/family movie.

While Just go with it manages with the humour at certain points, it’s quite a task to go along with the film’s crude, puerileness and cringe-worthy tenderness. This remake of the 1969 Gene Sacks film Cactus Flower fails to impress. Sitting through the David Dhawan version of the Sacks film seems to be a welcome thought in comparison.