A remake of a French film. A rom-com starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston with Brooklyn Decker (Sports Illustrated cover model). Also has Nicole Kidman.
The story: Danny (Sandler), after getting left at the alter, realizes a wedding ring is a perfect way to pick up women uses that lie to have a string of one night stands. Then he meets Palmer (Decker) who he connects with and thinks she might be the one (after he sleeps with her, of course), but when she discovers his wedding ring she thinks he is another cheating man and wants nothing to do with him. To get her back, he uses his assistant, Katherine (Aniston) to pretend they are married and getting a divorce...of course things go wrong when Katherine's kids become involved and her son blackmails him into taking them on a trip to Hawaii where he begins to have feelings for Katherine.
Was it good?
No. But it wasn't bad. It was just kind of blah.
They throw in a lot of comedy -- the kids blackmailing Danny and the constant complication from trying to keep the lie going -- and setting half the movie in Hawaii lets them show Decker in a bikini several times (and Aniston once) which all men will appreciate, but the problem is the story just isn't compelling.
The problem is there's nothing at stake. Jerry (Sandler) is a liar and scammer, but not even a particularly clever or fun one (comared to WEDDING CRASHERS). And while Palmer (Decker) is beautiful, there's never anything about her that makes you think the connection is more than physical. (Oddly, the one beat they include to make it seem more than just sex is that she can tell when he is lying...except she can't and it's never really brought up or used in the movie again which is weird since he spends the whole movie lying to her.) So he likes this girl, but it's not like he has a prolem getting women and he's a successful plastic surgeon in LA so even if he decided to stop lying he could still probably meet tons of women.
So you're never really rooting for him to win over Palmer. In fact, most of the time I was rooting against him because having him get caught would have been more fun.
Then there's the switch from him liking Palmer to him having feelings for Katherine. It basically happens at one event where they go from zero to sixty with feelings for each other. Except there was nothing really that special about that night. The whole falling in love stuff between them seemed incredibly inrealistic, so while I didn't really care about Jerry and Palmer, I also didn't care about whether he would choose to be with Katherine instead. They also have a running joke for most of the movie that Palmer is incredibly hot and Katherine is a frumpy woman...except Katherine is still Jennifer Aniston who might not be as hot as the cover girl for Sports Illustrated, but she's still hot. So all those jokes failed miserably.
So what you have is a rom-com that follows all the beats of a generic rom-com (the creative lie, falling for the other person, etc), but has nothing else to it other than a few gratuitous shots of a swimsuit model in a swimsuit.
Still the movie wasn't horrible. It had a likable energy and they keep things moving with lots of comedic set pieces. The problem is there's just nothing else there -- it's generic romantic comedy 101. It's a movie that has nothing to say. It's like a sequel that only has the inspiration that it can make money. Still, Sandler and Aniston are enjoyable enough that it's fine to watch as long as you know what you're getting into.
**** RENTAL ***
Watch instead: WEDDING SINGER -- just a great, great romantic comedy. Or any episode of FRIENDS, if you're a Jennifer Aniston fan.
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