Just Go With It

Just Go With It has redeemed the romantic comedy. After a string of bad ones lately I was ready to give the genre up, but Just Go With It has restored my faith. Adam Sandler is at his charming Wedding Singer best and I will go as far as to say that this is now my favorite Jennifer Aniston movie. The banter between Sandler and Aniston is so much fun. There is a sense of familiarity and closeness between them, yet they also seem to challenge each other to be even funnier. I really like them as a comedic couple. I’d love to see them do another film.

The rest of the supporting cast is equally good. Brooklyn Decker provides the beautiful fresh face that is so enticing that a man would lie and invent an entire family for. And Nick Swardson comes to the party with a bizarre hilarity that’s hard to describe. He plays Adam Sandler’s insufferable cousin who inserts himself into the fake family in order to get a free trip to Hawaii.

Usually kids in comedies can be quite superfluous, but Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck were not only necessary to this film they more than carried their comedic weight. I found Bailee Madison a little pretentious in the movie trailers, but in the context of the film she is very funny. They are complete characters and not cute little props or gag devices. Both of them added greatly to the enjoyment of the film.

Romantic comedies can be quite predictable but this one has a lot of surprises. Joke seeds would be planted in the dialogue of the film and later would spring up as full blown belly-laughs. There is also some good running gags like substituting the word poop with the name Devlin. Adam Sandler runs this bit into the ground but it never stops being funny. When we finally meet the real Devlin (Nicole Kidman) she is so deliciously over-the-top crazy you can’t believe that this is the same dramatic actress currently nominated for an Academy Award. She is really great in this role and should do comedy more often. Seeing her going toe-to-toe with Jennifer Aniston is a delight.

As the lie in this film grows to become more and more entangled you can’t believe how ridiculous it gets. Yet the cast seems to keep everything grounded. I sure that the director Dennis Dugan deserves some of the credit. The pace and tone of this film is good throughout and the script is very well balanced. As a comedy Just Go With It is top-notch and as a romantic comedy it is sweet; tame enough for the older kids but raunchy enough for the adults. This film is great for the family or a date. With this movie Aniston and Sandler deliver. I loved the Devlin out of this film.

Rating: First Run I loved the Devlin out of this film