Movie Review: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this movie was originally rated R
and had to be resubmitted to earn its PG-13 rating. As with
many Sandler movies, the jokes make fun of people -- in this
case, mostly homosexuals and the obese. It's 90 percent lowbrow
shenanigans and 10 percent heart, with an oversimplified
message that discrimination is bad and tolerance is good. (Also
good: best friends who would do anything for each other.)
Expect raunchy setups (Sandler plays a womanizing, "hot"
fireman who can apparently bed five women at once), tired
stereotypes (the firefighters look horrified when they
accidentally drop the soap in a butt-baring shower scene), and
strong language ("s--t," "dick," etc.). Even if tweens and
younger teens are Sandler fans, they may be too young to
separate the juvenile jokes from the underlying do-good
message.
- Families can talk about the issues raised by the film -- particularly discrimination. Why do Chuck and Larry's firefighter friends start treating them differently once they're outed as a couple? What do Chuck and Larry learn about homophobia? Do the stereotypes in the movie (about gay people, overweight people, and Asians) detract from its intended message? Is it OK to use hate words in comedies? What would you have done differently if you were making this movie?
The setup of NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY is simple: pudgy firefighter Larry (Kevin James) is a widower whose New York City fire department benefits can no longer be changed to make his children his beneficiaries -- unless he remarries. Enter Chuck , a loud, offensive, womanizing firefighter. After Larry saves Chuck's life during a fire, Chuck tells Larry he owes him "anything" he wants. What Larry wants is a fake domestic partnership so the kids will be taken care of ... so, naturally, Chuck and Larry have to pretend to be gay life partners. At first, the charade is low-key -- a civil ceremony at a courthouse and a few weeks of Chuck's mail forwarded to Larry's address. But the pals have to really let their rainbow flags fly when the benefits department sends an intrusive auditor (Steve Buscemi) to find out whether they're trying to defraud the government. Enter gay-friendly defense attorney Alex (the lovely Jessica Biel), who believes her new clients, even though Chuck can't keep his bedroom eyes off of her. To kick up the facade a notch, the couple endures getting outed, literal "don't drop the soap" jokes in the firehouse shower, a ridiculous marriage ceremony in Canada, and their first taste of discrimination. All of a sudden, they realize how insensitive they've been in the past.
Adam Sandler is a comedian who occasionally astonishes audiences with his range ( Punch-Drunk Love) and sincerity ( The Wedding Singer). But, for the most part, he makes his living playing and acting the crass fool and this "comedy" is not one of the exceptions in the Sandler filmography. Even the addition of lovable everyman Larry Valentine, the Chuck factor dominates the movie.
For of all the movie's borderline -- and outright -- offensive laughs, there's a well-intentioned message of tolerance, diversity, and so on. Under so many layers of tired humor, the tiny kernel of wisdom easily gets lost, and its message about tolerance apparently doesn't extend to the obese (who are cheaply made fun of in the majority of Sandler's movies) and East Asians, who will no doubt cringe at the horrifying sight of Rob Schneider -- one of the many Saturday Night Live vets to cameo -- playing the Asian wedding officiant. With his bowl cut, buck teeth, and thick glasses (not to mention the awful accent) Schneider is the worst caricature of an Asian man in nearly half a century. On the bright side, at least there's a hilarious moment when a hitherto scary Ving Rhames starts belting out a Diana Ross tune in the shower. That alone was worth one star.
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