Adam Sandler goes drag for Jack and Jill: movie review
Adam Sandler plays a dual role in “Jack and Jill,” and he’s a lot better as Jill than as Jack. The plot is a flimsy excuse for a lot of goofy drag humor. Jack is a successful L.A. ad executive, and Jill is his obnoxious twin sister who has come for her annual dreaded Thanksgiving visit. For reasons too ridiculous to get into, she ends up being wooed by a seriously smitten Al Pacino.
Sandler has become a good actor of late, but here he gives over most of his talents to Jill, who is so screechy, needy, and lovelorn that you can hardly blame Jack for wanting to fade into the background. Pacino, caricaturing his patented intensity, is pretty outsized as well. This is the first time he has played a character this harmlessly goofy, and it makes you wonder if he’s trying to compete with Robert De Niro, who long ago decided to lampoon his intensity in films like the “Analyze This” and “Fockers” series. Pacino’s grandstanding is funny for a while until you realize that, given the calculated tepidness of most mainstream movies, Pacino may not have many opportunities these days to be great. Grade: C+ (Rated PG for crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence, and brief smoking.)
