I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Review

Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor won an Oscar for their screenplay for Sideways. For their part in dropping the big stink bomb I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry—their co-conspirator Barry Fanaro won two Emmys for his work on The Golden Girls, but that somehow seems appropriate—the Academy should force them to give it back. As scripts go, this one reeks. It never rises above the level of a really wretched sitcom. And in presenting a ludicrous scenario in which two straight guys pretend to be gay, it tries to have it both ways. The humor is often deliberately offensive—racist, sexist, and homophobic as it reaches for the hat trick—but then it wraps it all up in a politically correct bow in the end.

In other words, it is a typical Adam Sandler movie, since again he plays the mean-spirited jerk who is revealed to be a nice guy in the end. Once more, it is a transition that defies belief, as does his role as New York firefighter Chuck Levine, catnip to the ladies—apparently Chuck & Larry takes place in some bizarro world where petulant truculence is considered charming. He reluctantly agrees to become domestic partner to his best friend, fellow fireman and widower Larry Valentine (Kevin James) to protect Larry's pension for his two kids in the event of Larry's death (it's a long, incredible story). When fraud investigator Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi) starts sniffing around, the pals travel to Canada to marry on the advice of attorney Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel).

The results are predictable. Their fellow firefighters ostracize them when the news gets out, even though they should be among the first to realize that it is all a scam. The pair become a cause celebre in the gay community. Chuck falls in love with Alex, who just adores her new gay best friend so much that she invites him to feel her up just to prove her breasts are real. Not a stereotype, gay or straight, goes unturned, finding expression even in the guise of Larry's musical-loving young son (Cole Morgen). And for good measure, Sandler's fellow SNL alum Rob Schneider adds some ugly Asian stereotypes for good measure in his role as a wedding chapel proprietor. Even in a comedy as tasteless as this one strives to be, some of the humor is really beyond the pale, such as when Chuck—who is constantly telling Larry that he needs to get past his wife's death already, it's been three years—tries to get under Larry's skin by joking about his dead spouse. Yep, the guy's a keeper all right.

But I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry's biggest sin is not in the many ways it seeks to offend or in the way it veers into PC self-righteous sanctimony at the climax or even in its insistence that a bright lawyer like Alex would fall for a smarmy jackass like Chuck. No, what makes this celluloid trash one of the worst movies that you may suffer through this year is that it is not funny. It does not aim high, yet it cannot even hit the low targets it sets for itself. It is simply painful.