Jack and Jill

Synopsis: Jack and Jill is a comedy focusing on Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler), a successful advertising executive in Los Angeles with a beautiful wife and kids, who dreads one event each year: the Thanksgiving visit of his identical twin sister Jill (also Adam Sandler). Jill’s neediness and passive-aggressiveness is maddening to Jack, turning his normally tranquil life upside down. Katie Holmes plays Erin, Jack’s wife.

Release Date: November 11, 2011     MPAA Rating: PG-13

Genre(s): Comedy,

Film Review

Adam Sandler’s new film stars Adam Sandler, and Adam Sandler. Yes, one Adam Sandler is not enough this time around, he has created a twin in the form of a husky woman who looks just like Adam Sandler–the frightening image of such a creation that just flashed in your mind is accurate. Jack and Jill is typical Sandler fare, except for the double trouble of having him in both starring roles as the role of his wife Erin, played by Katie Holmes, may as well be a mannequin because she says very little, and has absolutely no real reason to even exist in the story.

Jack and Jill is about twin siblings Jack (Adam Sandler) and Jill (Adam Sandler), and the relationship they share with one another. Jack dislikes Jill and loathes the time she spends with his family every year over Thanksgiving weekend. Jill lives alone in Brooklyn, having cared for their parents her entire life, never marrying or having any sort of relationship with a man. As Jill puts it, she likes men but they have never much liked her. This could have something to do with her super whiny voice and the fact that she looks like Adam Sandler in drag. Looks are not everything, a key point to be made in Jack and Jill as in every Sandler movie–and yes, “Sandler” should become its own genre at this point–there is always a sweet, good-natured moral to every one of these films. When Jill comes to visit the countdown begins as to when she will leave but this time she is staying longer than expected, much to Jack’s dismay. Until he finds that Al Pacino, playing himself, has grown fond of Jill and wants Jack’s help to woo his sister. Jack wants Al to star in a Dunkin Donuts commercial in order to save his company from ruin. But Jill is not interested in Mr. Pacino, she finds spending time with the landscaper Felipe (Eugenio Derbez) a great deal more fun than Pacino’s ‘Don Quixote’ ramblings, or incessant need to go back to his roots in Brooklyn and believing Jill is his ticket to finding himself again. Jack finds he needs Jill for his own selfish reasons, but as Adam Sandler movies go he will realize he needs Jill because she is his sister and an important part of who he is, and important for his family as well. This is something we of course already know because he defends her to others constantly; only Jack can make fun of and degrade Jill because she is his sister (typical sibling behavior to a tee).

It is incredibly difficult to completely discount an Adam Sandler film, Jack and Jill in all of its ridiculousness included. One is completely aware of what they are getting when they buy their ticket for one of his films and Jack and Jill is no different. To his credit he pulls off the dual role impeccably. Jack and Jill is more of a family oriented film than say Happy Gilmore, the evolution of the Sandler genre continues to move into family fare over the years. There are still the typical low-brow jokes and potty humor. The kids continue to steal the show with their adorableness, and quick witted responses to Sandler as Jack or Jill. The ending is sweet, and full of love, surrounded by unfathomable stupidity in terms of comedy–David Spade makes an appearance as a woman, a sight even more frightful than Adam Sandler in drag. In the end Jack and Jill is no more than one can expect from an Adam Sandler film: it will make you laugh, give you a gooey sentimental feeling at times, and even have you thinking your time could have been spent doing something much less entertaining. Jack and Jill is standard fare, but it’s not a complete disaster.

No matter how old Adam Sandler gets his jokes in movies remain the same. The comedy in Jack and Jill is childish, and crude. Jill takes the brunt of it in Jack and Jill as her appearance and personality feed the humor throughout. She is also the victim of being stripped of any form of femininity, making her into a grotesque figure for comedy sake. Her first time eating Mexican food provides the necessary bathroom humor a Sandler movie always has in store for the viewer. The sound effects in such scene are cringe worthy, and yet still funny. There are an abundance of hilarious moments involving Jack and Jill, and Jack’s children. A favorite being the Thanksgiving dinner scene and the use of the salt shaker, that is attached to Jack’s sons head. As well as the sly jokes about antisemitism, the germans, illegal immigration thanks to Felipe, and well, everything to do with Jill being a man of a woman, or worse. Love it or hate it, a Sandler movie is bound to make you laugh from the most unintelligible jokes, slapstick, and pretty much by just existing.

Cast and Crew

• Director(s): Dennis DuganAdam SandlerBettina Sofia Viviano
• Producer(s): Steve KorenRobert SmigelBen Zook
• Screenwriter(s): Adam Sandler (Jack/Jill)Katie Holmes (Erin)Al Pacino (Himself)
• Story: Eugenio Derbez (Felipe)
• Cast:  Tom CostainDean CundeyPerry Andelin Blake
• Editor(s):
• Cinematographer: Rupert Gregson-Williams
• Production Designer(s):
• Costume Designer: 
• Casting Director(s): 
• Music Score: 
• Music Performed By: 
• Country Of Origin: USA