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Sometimes, I find, it’s just best to go into a movie with low expectations—because the lower they are, the easier it is to exceed them. For the new Adam Sandler / Kevin James comedy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, I don’t think my expectations could have been much lower—which, in the end, turned out to be a good thing.
In this cornball comedy, Sandler plays Chuck Levine, a womanizing Brooklyn firefighter whose best friend and fire-fighting partner, Larry (played by James), may have to find a new job. After his wife died three years ago, Larry was too grief-stricken to fill out the forms naming his two kids as his primary beneficiaries—and now it’s too late to make the switch. Unless he gets remarried, his only option is to find a different (and safer) job.
One night, though, Larry finds the perfect solution to his problem: domestic partnership. Calling in a favor, Larry gets Chuck to sign the paperwork to make everything official. But, of course, nothing goes exactly as planned. And when investigator Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi) starts snooping through Larry’s trash, the two are forced to start acting like a real gay couple.
Suddenly, Chuck and Larry are forced to deal with prejudice wherever they go—but that’s the least of their problems. Their biggest challenge comes in the perfect form of their smokin’ hot lawyer, Alex (Jessica Biel), who poses a serious threat to Chuck’s new faux-homosexual lifestyle.
Adam Sandler is well known for his low-brow humor—and Chuck and Larry is no exception. There’s nothing deep or meaningful or especially clever about it—but, well, that’s okay. Sure, the jokes are sophomoric, and the script is jam-packed with overcooked clichés. Some of the jokes occasionally go beyond “that was unnecessary” and into “okay…that was just too much.” But that’s what people expect when they go to see an Adam Sandler movie. And, to be honest, I’m just relieved to see him taking a break from his mission to prove to the world that he’s a serious actor—because, personally, I prefer my Adam Sandler just a little bit on the silly side.
The best thing about Chuck and Larry, however, might be the random cameos—from Dan Aykroyd as Chuck and Larry’s skeptical captain to Dave Matthews as a boutique clerk—which are funny just because they’re so totally random. And, fortunately, none of those random cameos involve Rob Schneider.
While I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is far from the best comedy of the year (that title still belongs to Hot Fuzz), it still manages to tell a cute story about friendship and tolerance (Isaiah Washington take note). And, in the process, it’s good for a couple of laughs—as long as you’re willing to check your brain (and your expectations) at the door.
