In “Just Go With It,” whose title really has to be read as a plea from the filmmakers, given all the leaps of faith they want you to take with a movie that’s really more like a loose improv session, or an extended party game ‘ oh wait, what was I saying’
Aniston plays Katherine, a single mom working as an assistant to Sandler’s successful plastic surgeon, and she’s got the frumpy wardrobe to prove it. If you’re inclined to buy the premise, the way for a nerdy guy to bed an endless succession of great-looking chicks is to pretend he’s married. I gather it’s all part of the feminine mystique as defined by boobs (as in boys, not breasts) that a wedding ring and a bad marriage are the ultimate aphrodisiac. Right.
Anyway, Dr. Danny has finally met a gorgeous girl (Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl Brooklyn Decker) who likes him even without the wedding ring. Since he really likes this girl back, when she discovers his fake gold band and declares she won’t date a married man, he undertakes a cover-up of Watergate proportions to try to keep her. The plan involves getting Katherine to pose as his wife, conscripting her kids, concocting a divorce, funding a “Pretty Woman” makeover and before you can say, “Huh?” the new girlfriend, the fake ex, the fake kids and the fake ex’s fake flame (Nick Swardson) are off to Hawaii to swim with dolphins. Don’t ask.
The whole idea somehow seemed more plausible in 1969 when the screen version of “Cactus Flower” was first trotted out, winning Goldie Hawn an Oscar for her turn as the girlfriend. It was based on the Tony-winning stage play, which itself was based on the French stage play, which makes sense. After all, if anyone knows what to do with a sexy farce it’s the French.
Still, the movie is a good fit for Aniston. One of her gifts, which director Dennis Dugan, a long-time Sandler collaborator, exploits in a good way is her ability to look as believable in a shapeless, off-the-rack shift and sandals as in a body-hugging, off-the-shoulder mini and stilettos. But ‘ and this is the big one that most of Hollywood doesn’t get since they keep casting her in one failed romantic comedy after another ‘ he also understands that while she’s hot, she’s not smokin’ hot, as in mouth-drooling, pulse-racing, temperature-raising hot. Her on-screen kisses and clinches are more sisterly and sincere than sexy. Maybe she’s a slow burner, but at least on screen, no one has figured out yet how to light that fire.
All of those girl-next-door, punch-you-in-the-arm-if-she-likes-you qualities make a good comic match for Sandler, though, who’s got the whole not-sexy thing going too. His nerdy naughty-but-nice persona has proved appealing to males and females alike, and coupled with his mumble-funny self-deprecating patter, it has made him a box-office billionaire ($3 billion and counting), which means Hollywood will let him do whatever he wants. And that is what happens here.