Not quite double the pleasure

ALL by his lonesome, comedian Adam Sandler is a bankable star. So, you’d think that, if he played twins in a movie, it would be double the pleasure, double the fun, right? Uh, not quite.

In “Jack & Jill,” Sandler is cast as a peace-loving family man who gets antsy only once a year—when his female twin (also played by the actor) comes to visit. He dreads the annual reunion, because she’s his exact opposite, full of vim, vigor and sarcasm, and a constant accident in the making.

In addition, she’s unhappy with her life as a single and unloved woman, especially since their mother passed away. That’s why she places too much importance on her annual visits to her only sibling—and that’s why, because she tries too hard to make them fun and memorable, they inevitably end up disastrously.

The film’s plot path is clear enough, but its outcome is foiled by Sandler’s inability to portray Jill with the right mix of gung-ho brio and vulnerability. In making her larger and louder than life, he runs roughshod over her potentially more tender side. So, when it’s time to reveal it, the effect is implausible rather than genuinely affecting.

Unusual gambit

The production’s most unusual gambit is its decision to include the performance of the famous veteran star, Al Pacino—as himself. Talk about a different ploy to arouse viewers’ interest, this is it!

How does Pacino get involved with Jack and his brassy, sassy twin? Jack needs him to agree to do a commercial, and he sees his opening when Pacino expresses a romantic interest in Jill! This is a comedy, so a far-out conceit like that is allowed, even if Jill looks to be twice the height and heft of her famous admirer.

But, even the unique Pacino-as-himself gambit fails to fly, because the moviemakers don’t develop it in a sufficiently inventive and droll manner. So, despite Pacino’s willingness to spoof himself, the laughs he gets are minimal.

Challenges

That’s really too bad, because the film, had it turned out to be a winner, would have proven Sandler’s versatility, and opened his career up to other, increasingly more difficult challenges, the same way that Dustin Hoffman’s title portrayal in “Tootsie” was able to take him to another level.

Like Sandler in “Jack & Jill,” Hoffman also played “Tootsie” in drag, but he did so more lightly and blithely than Sandler has played Jill. Hoffman is just as manly as Sandler, but he worked really hard to make his assigned character’s “femininity” believable, whereas Sandler took the easy way out and played Jill practically like a female body builder or football player. —Not a good move and his film is consequently less than the success it was fully aiming to be.