I am less boggled by whether or not the Raelean’s have figured out the true origins of life on Earth as I am by the enigma that is Adam Sandler, a comic who had moments of cult-comedy brilliance in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore and the occasional holiday-song parody that sympathetically tugs at our turkey-loving heartstrings or gives us a glimpse at how many “Jews are in showbiz – Tom Cruise isn’t, but I heard his agent is.”
At the same time, there are moments when Sandler has attempted to deviate from his comedic path and delve into roles that establish him as a real actor; however, few of these have worked, and it’s not to say that his roles aren’t well performed. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love was Sandler’s first legitimately dramatic role that didn’t dictate a potty joke or a squeaky voice delivering lines about “hynies” [sic?]. But, it’s worth pointing out that Anderson’s film is a rather dark and mordant comedy and Sandler had the benefit of playing along certain other actors like Luis Guzman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Emily Watson – not that Sandler wasn’t adequate as Barry Egan; he just wasn’t the star of the film.
After Punch Drunk Love, it seems that Sandler danced on the line between goofball comedy and dramedy, which is a fine venture for any actor, but these films often flopped because there were moments that led the audience up the familiar Sandler trail, setting us up for a raunchy or crude joke, only to throw us off the summit into a pit of pseudo-seriousness. In other words, if the film is going for raunchy, embrace the raunch; if not, avoid the raunch and rely on timing and humor. And, it’s the timing that seemed to have slipped from Sandler’s films after Punch Drunk Love – or perhaps the glaring lack of timing has become evident.
Take for example Mr. Deeds, a film that tries to be genuine in the relationship between Longfellow (Sandler) and Babe (Winona Ryder); nevertheless, any romance and comedy intertwined with the romance is often elided by certain scenes like Longfellow’s foot being beaten and then skewered by a steel-poker wielding John Turturro. While the remake of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is supposed to be a more comedic take, the stabs at comedy are often overshadowed by sight gags rooted in discomfort, like America’s Funniest Home Videos of People Being Hit in the Crotch.
There is nothing inherently wrong with body fluid jokes or crude humor; Billy Madison an eighty five minute puberty joke, but if the story itself is interrupted by juvenile jokes with no bearing on the plot, then the lack of cohesion tanks the film. Another example might be the remake of The Longest Yard, and while this comedy isn’t terrible, it still falls victim to silliness, particularly the addition of Tracy Morgan’s pre-op transgender prisoner. While it’s amusing to see Tracy wear a skirt once, the shtick rots quickly, continuing to linger; the same goes for the slightly mentally retarded gentle giant who gets physically and emotionally injured easily. While these characters conjure chuckles, they take away from the “redemption” angle of the film, and transform The Longest Yard into something you might watch for five minutes but forget about it during a commercial or when something better comes on.
Sandler’s new film Just Go With It strikes me as one with the same issues in that one of the scenes from the preview gives us Sandler arguing with his fake son, who cries “that man put his peepee on my face,” to which Sandler rejoins “He put his face on my peepee!” While pederasty jokes are sidesplittingly inspiring, a movie marketed on them will soon hope to sell enough DVD copies to break even. That said, the premise that leads to this situation look doubly dubious:
Danny (Sandler) is a man with a plan, someone searching for as many flings as there are nights to fill them with, and he has settled on foolproof plan to wear a wedding ring to make himself appear off the market; thus, there are “no strings attached and no one gets hurt.” Ah, those magical words that lead us down the path to clichéd conflict, pitting Sandler at one end, and Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) the girl he has miraculously fallen in love and with whom he “could see [himself] ending up with” after one night of sex at the other, but she discovers the wedding ring and poses the question: “What is this?” to which Danny replies, “a circle.” (Gold I tell you! It’s gold!)
What’s a man to do? Insert devious scheme to prove that he’s not a devious schemer (?): Telling Palmer that he is in the midst of a divorce, Danny’s genius excuse is foiled because Palmer wants to meet the soon-to-be ex-wife, which just seems beyond logic considering that putting a wife and a girlfriend in one room would often equal either a bloody mess or terribly fractured emotions that would most likely be devastating for Danny. But, whatever, so enter Katherine (Jennifer Aniston; Box office gold baby!) , Danny’s assistant who agrees to play the wife-in-transition.
However, Katherine has children, which means Danny has children, so his scheme to convince Palmer that he is an honest, faithful guy who she will spend the rest of her life with is already out of gas by the time the film slogs to the word “peepee.” Therefore, the audience is expected to watch a man who has seemingly decided to ditch his philandering ways implode on screen. Movies aren’t required to have happy endings, but they should at least offer a touch of logic, and the mere premise of Just Go With It will ultimately deny this theory when Katherine and Danny ultimately fall for each other and Palmer is left strutting her beautiful blonde self on a hot sandy beach. And, herein lies an additional bit of silliness: when Danny and Katherine fall for each other, their relationship will have been based both on a interaction at work and the propagation of an overly elaborate ruse that exposes the propensity of dishonesty for both characters, thus this relationship is also destined to crash and burn.
The overall issue with Just Go With It is that it seems to be trying to build off of premises explored in earlier Judd Apatow films like Knocked Up and 40-Year Old Virgin, where a number of male characters are holding on to their youth so tightly that their adulthood is sprinting by, limiting their chances of having a family and finding the one with each passing day. And as years go by, this fear becomes daunting, so the males find comfort in what they are familiar with: pubescent jokes and juvenile humor. And for Apatow, this premise works because the rebellion often comes when the male characters are faced with responsibilities and these responsibilities are the catalysts for their acting out. When it doesn’t work out, he makes light of it and gives us David (Paul Rudd), a hopeless soul who is a minor character that provides comic relief. However, Just Go With It gives us a forty-year –old Adam Sandler, whose character is propelled by the chase and deceit, so what redemption is he allotted? And while he most probably grows up at the end, who cares?
