Jack and Jill
2011
Dennis Dugan
The idea of something being "the worst" fascinates me. It's interesting because it says more about the viewer than it does about the thing that you're making the judgment about, I think. Like, it's really easy to call something "the worst," but the act of doing so marks you as someone who is incapable of optimism, or of seeing the good in things. I'm talking about simple pop culture stuff here—go ahead and call trump "the worst," it says nothing about you to state this fact. When it comes to something as innocuous as a 2010s Adam Sandler comedy, to call it "the worst" just rings false to me. How can something so silly and dumb be "the worst"? Doesn't such an opinion warrant a bit of self-reflection? Perhaps thinking that this film is "the worst" is a projection?!
I'm partially trying to justify Jack and Jill's inclusion on my list of 200 movies I've never seen before. This isn't a list of great, or even good, movies. This is a list of movies that I'd never seen and also—crucially—movies that I am interested in exploring. Jack and Jill definitely fits the bill, based on the extremely low critical opinion below. Is it really that bad, or could I possible have fun watching this film?
I think it's possible that all three of these things are true: 1) it's not the worst movie of all time, 2) it's a bad movie, 3) it's easy to have fun watching this movie. Jack and Jill lives in that space that Adam Sandler thrives in, the kind of cookie-cutter shit that allows Sandler to wear some silly costumes and do some silly voices and is funny like 15% of the time. The worst? Absolutely not. It can't be due to the fact that I laughed, right? It wasn't a laugh per minute, but I laughed at least a half dozen times, if not more. That's not something that the Worst Movie of All Time could do.
I mean, it's not even the worst Adam Sandler / Happy Madison Productions movie I've ever seen, let alone the worst movie period. Hubie Halloween was even worse. Exponentially worse. I can't remember a single time I laughed during that film. Jack and Jill? Definitely laughed. I was also mildly impressed with a few of the plot points...
Okay, I never know whether to talk about the plot in these things. I would normally be averse to spoilers, but I doubt there are a significant number of people reading this who have not seen Jack and Jill and who also plan to watch Jack and Jill very soon. Plus, it might be fun to see if I can reduce this film's story into like four or five sentences. It's not a "crazy" script or anything, but there is a few more aspects to it beyond "Adam Sandler plays a normal man and a silly woman."
Doing my best here. Jack (Adam Sandler) is a mild-mannered commercial director in Los Angeles. His bosses tell him that he needs to land Al Pacino for a Dunkin Donuts commercial, or else he's canned. His twin sister Jill (Adam Sandler) is visiting from New York, and she's a mess. Jack resents Jill for her behavior and for reminding him of the life that he worked so hard to escape from. Jill says that her love life is going nowhere. Jack sets her up on a date, and it's a disaster. Then Jill and Al Pacino have a meet cute at a Lakers game. Jill is not interested. Al Pacino (playing himself in the film) is wildly interested in Jill, and will only do the Dunkin Donuts commercial if Jack sets him up with Jill. But because Jill is not interested, now all of a sudden Jack has an interest in Jill's romantic endeavors, which causes friction.
Off the top of my head, I can think of three aspects to this admittedly bonkers plot that I really appreciated. The first is that everyone committed to their respective roles, including Al Pacino, amusingly. The idea of the real Al Pacino getting over-the-top horny about Adam Sandler in drag is so preposterous that it works, but it wouldn't have worked if Pacino didn't go all in. He did, for some reason, and so we have probably the least deserving Razzies winner of all time. Adam Sandler got flack for underperforming in the Jack role and overperforming in the Jill role, but I get why he made those decisions. He wasn't phoning it in as Jack; he was trying to create a contrast. It was stupid and dumb and so incredibly Sandler-esque, but yo, it wasn't that bad.
The second thing I didn't hate was the bit where Jack is so desperate to get Al Pacino to date his sister (and thus secure him for the Dunkin commercial) that he dresses up like Jill, which was as silly as it seems, but also added just enough of a meta layer to the affair that I was impressed. Think about it: this is Adam Sandler playing a character who is pretending to be another character who is also played by Adam Sandler. I feel like Sandler played the nuance as well as Tatiana Maslany did in Orphan Black.
The final thing is the actual Dunkin Donuts commercial, at the very end of the film:
Interpret however you want, but to me, this is Jack and Jill admitting that the movie is in on the joke. It's self-aware. Jack and Jill knows that it's bad, and it really leans into it. I'm sure critics were tempted at the time to say something along the lines of "Maybe Sandler should've listened to Pacino's advice and burned this film to not let anyone ever see it," but I think that's too easy. I see it more of Sandler's way of saying, "Look, I know this is The Godfather, but I had fun making it, and I hope you had some fun watching it." I appreciated the honesty.
And I did have fun watching it. It's fun to take an innocuously bad work of art and try to see the good in it. It's a joy to be needlessly optimistic about something that could very reasonably be described as a piece of shit. I love being a contrarian. It's one of my favorite things. This was just another opportunity to flex those muscles. So at least there's that.
GRADE: 2 pukes out of 5
NEXT TIME: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in—our Grannies Gone Wild friend Alfred Dennis shows up in The Jerk, apparently, so that's exciting. Oh, and also, Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, etc., etc. But how cares about those assholes. Alfred Dennis! Get excited!
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