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JUST GO WITH IT |
This reworking of Cactus Flower (1969) keeps the basic plot: a philandering plastic surgeon pretends to be unhappily married to get women. When he finally meets the woman of his dreams (Decker), he attempts to change his ways but she finds his wedding band. He tells her he’s getting a divorce but she demands to hear it from his wife directly. He asks his office manager Katherine (Aniston) to pose as his wife to prove his story.
But things spiral out of control when one lie leads to a bigger one, and so on. The original material – a French play, then an American play, then an Oscar-winning film – all lives within the realm of “sex farce” starring grown-ups. But in Dugan and Sandler’s hands (their sixth collaboration), we get pee-pee jokes, Dave Matthews picking up a coconut with his butt cheeks and a small boy taking a crap on an adult man, who then screams about it in a fake German accent.
Brooklyn Decker steals the show by being so damned beautiful and actually resembling a human being. Sandler and Aniston’s familiar shtick is so broad and forced that it plays like a Three’s Company episode. Why is Nicole Kidman slumming as Aniston’s old high school nemesis? Couldn’t they find another Oscar-winner for the pointless hula-dancing smackdown with Aniston (officiated by sportscaster Dan Patrick)?
(Columbia)
— DENNIS WILLIS
