I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel
Director: Dennis Dugan
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 2hr 20mins
Rated: Rated PG-13 for crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language and drug references.
Plot: Two New York firefighters — Larry (James), a widower with two kids, and Chuck (Sandler), a consummate ladies’ man — pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefits. They face a series of challenges in order to maintain their ruse, the toughest being Chuck’s feelings for the lawyer (Biel) who’s representing them.

My Review: The story of “Chuck and Larry” is certainly relevant in current gay rights issues, so I wasn’t sure how much that would weigh this comedy down. Let me assure you, it didn’t. I was pleasantly surprised though and found the movie to be enjoyable, humorous, and reasonable enough to be taken as serious as a comedy can handle. There’s plenty of character exaggerations like Chuck (Sandler) with 5 (maybe more) girls in his bedroom to demonstrate just how much of a ladies man he is as well as the tough Ving Rhames who nearly floats away by the end of the movie. Those aspects and more keep the story pretty silly while book-ending a great comedy with a serious side. The jokes don’t feel tired and reused despite sometimes coming off like a mash-up between Green Card and The Odd Couple. While this won’t win any Academy Awards for its writing the story remains plausible and entertaining throughout.

This is one of Sandler’s best pieces in quite awhile. He’s matured out of his Billy Madison days and seemed to have a hard time finding his groove again for awhile there. Lucky for us he has found his balance as he brings the perfect mix of nearly silly humor with mature wit to deliver a great performance. Kevin James matches Sandler’s on-screen performance without dropping the ball. He was a lot of fun and if he keeps this up should continue to have more opportunities like this in his future. A well disguised Rob Schneider as the chapel director (dare I say minister?) is extremely enjoyable in his uncredited, but fairly involved role. Before anyone gets too worked up over Schneider’s Asian portrayal don’t forget Mickey’s Rooney’s turn as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s some 46 years ago. Jessica Biel does a fine job in her role as the sexy lawyer that tempts Sandler to blow their “gay” cover. She’s great with the “sexy” part, but the “lawyer” side comes off completely unbelievable, especially in the final hearing room scene. Thankfully no one brings the movie down, not even the stock characters you’ve seen in nearly every single Adam Sandler / Happy Madison production.

While I heard some initial reactions that this film would speak out on behalf of gay rights I think it would have been more accurate to say it spoke out against restrictive employment benefits (Familiar with ‘only change your benefits at life events’? Yeah, annoying.) However, this movie does a moderate job of encouraging tolerance, if not acceptance. There’s a surprising amount of homophobia behavior even at the very end from the main characters. So don’t go into this expecting a “pro” anything angle as neither side really seems to be declared the winner. The topic matter is going to be too serious for young children and there’s more than enough of sexual references. I had plenty of laugh out loud moments and enjoyed the well written story and skilled cast. As such, I could easily recommend this movie as a very fun comedy.

My rating: 4/5 stars
High point: Lots of laughs with great character interactions (Sandler & James).
Low point: Please tell me that wasn’t David Spade the whole time.

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