Movie Review: Just Go With It Is Actually Pretty Good if You're Willing to Just Go With It

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston's romantic comedy might be winning any awards, but it still has its heartfelt, funny moments

By Ande Dagan Feb 11, 2011 2:00 AMTags
Just Go With It, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn DeckerSony Pictures

Review in a Hurry: Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston pretend to be married so Sandler can keep getting down with a hot young thing (Brooklyn Decker) who thinks he's getting divorced. It sounds all kinds of nonsensical, but if you're willing to suspend your sense of disbelief and just go with it, it actually kind of works.

The Bigger Picture: Danny (Sandler) is a nice guy who's not all that successful with the ladies. After calling off his own wedding on the day he was supposed to get married, Danny heads to a bar, still wearing his wedding ring. He inevitably meets a woman who is only willing to talk to him because of said ring. Flash forward 10 or so years, and although he's now a successful plastic surgeon, the old wedding ring trick is still Danny's main source of attracting women.

Enter young, hot, schoolteacher Palmer (Decker). The two meet at a party and share a genuine connection. The next morning, she finds a wedding ring in Danny's pants and the charade begins. Rather than just telling her the truth, Danny convinces his single-mom assistant, Katherine (Aniston), to pretend they're married and actually in the process of getting a divorce.

Somehow, all three, plus Katherine's two kids and Danny's cousin Eddie (Nick Swardson), who keeps his wacky sidekick character just shy of the audience wishing he would fall into a volcano, end up in Hawaii. At this point, the charismatic Sandler gets to show that he has grown into his "authentic self" as Oprah might say. He's the charming sincere goofball who still takes the occasional swift jab to the nuts—a sort of nod to the bros that, although grown and somewhat mature, he still maintains traces of his beloved '90s characters. Sandler's chemistry with the amiable Aniston, who looks amazing, (does she bathe in the tears of baby narwhals?) is undeniable. As an unfortunate plot device, Danny never noticed how hot Katherine was because she was always wearing glasses and had her hair up. Lame. Also less fortunate is Palmer, who begins to devolve into nothing more than a gullible slow-motion bikini shot who only gets out of various forms of water.

Do things conveniently work out for everyone in the end? Possibly. Is the road that gets them there filled with predictable but funny, heart-felt moments? Definitely.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Just Go With It is not going to win any awards for best anything, ever. But it has its funny and cute moments, and what's not to like about the randomness of an almost all Police/Sting soundtrack and cameos by Dave Matthews and Kevin Nealon?