Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and the art of mainstream cinematic comedy all realize new lows with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, one of the year’s most stunningly feeble offerings. Directed with typical clumsiness by Dennis Dugan, Sandler’s latest – co-written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor – is a thoroughly unfunny and generally offensive groaner masquerading as a tolerant social statement, with the painfully schematic story concerning two fireman buddies, Chuck (Sandler) and Larry (James), who decide to enter a civil union in order to preserve widower Larry’s health benefits. Not surprisingly, what this plot amounts to is little more than an endless stream of lame, noxious jokes directed at gays, all of which are supposed to be taken in good fun given that the film eventually has its hetero protagonists learning, first-hand, about the discrimination and humiliation faced by gays on a regular basis, and endeavoring to change public perception about their same-sex brethren. If anyone’s buying this have your-cake-and-eat-it-too tack – in which Sandler and company get to first mock “faggots” and then condemn such intolerance – as empowering, then perhaps they’d also be interested in hearing about some prime Siberian real estate I’m looking to unload…
So, this was one of your 'let's catch up with awards season' picks? I thought it was OK for it is, an Adam Sandler movie.
Posted by: Al1 | November 27, 2007 at 10:56 PM
Ha. No, this was just a Friday night rental, though there were a few prominent critics who thought it was pretty great. Obviously, I don't agree.
The award-season catch-up reviews begin with Things We Lost in the Fire, and will continue for the next few weeks (along with a few random reviews that have just been sitting on the back-burner)...
Posted by: Nick | November 28, 2007 at 10:03 AM
Yeah, not drinking the punch on this one either, and the fact that most of the critical champions have been gay themselves confuses me more. I'm no liberal guilt sufferer, but I found it really offensive, and yet, a subversive streak might've saved this: How about the variant on the old joke about the guy who gets a snakebite on his junk (sorry, just watched Juno) and the buddy who, upon hearing that he can save him if he sucks out the poison, tells his ailing friend: "Bad news, you're gonna die." If Chuck was forced to blow Larry in a dire, hey-I-ain't-no-faggot-but-y'know situation, maybe I'd buy the stereotype-as-empowerment argument. Feh.
Posted by: Aaron Hillis | December 07, 2007 at 01:13 AM
Aaron,
Agreed. I too expected a more subversive streak, especially given the praise it had received from a few prominent gay critics. But it never materialized - it was just easy mockery followed by even easier messages of tolerance.
Cathy now uses the term "Chuck and Larry" to denote something bad. As in, "Juno is so Chuck and Larry."
Posted by: Nick | December 07, 2007 at 08:56 AM