Business rating: 1 / 5 stars
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Star Cast: Adam Sandler (in a double role), Al Pacino (as himself), Katie Holmes, Johnny Depp (in a special appearance).
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What’s Bad: The uninspiring and insipid script; Adam Sandler’s performance; the irritating character of Jill; the absence of good comedy and emotions in the drama.
Verdict: Jack And Jill is a downhill experience for the audience. The movie won’t do much at the Indian box-office.
Loo break: Several.
Watch or Not?: Watch only if you like half-baked comedies with toilet humour.
Broken Road Productions and Happy Madison Productions’ Jack And Jill is about the evolving relationship between two identical twins. Jack (Adam Sandler) and Jill (also Sandler) are 42-year-old twin brother and sister. While Jack is a successful, well-to-do advertising man in Los Angeles, who lives with his beautiful wife and two kids, Jill is a manly, awkward and rather simpleton spinster who longs for her family’s company. Jill stays alone in Bronx with a pet bird. As her mother has passed away recently, Jill comes to spend the Thanksgiving holiday at her brother’s home.
Jack, who wants to retain a major client at work in order to save his company from going under, is clearly irritated with his sister’s presence and makes it known to her. On the other hand, Jack’s family loves Jill and her simple (and sometimes stupid) ways. As much as Jill might want to remind Jack of the bond they shared as children, Jack does not relent. He tries every trick in the book to get Jill out of his house, including setting up her online dating profile. Jack’s behavior makes Jill seek reassurance in the company of his widowed gardener. When he is scolded by his wife, Jack takes Jill to a basketball match where he tries to talk to movie star Al Pacino, whom Jack wants for endorsing a product of his. Pacino is dismissive of Jack but takes an instant liking to Jill, who, in turn, rejects Pacino’s advances. Pacino agrees to do Jack’s ad as long as he can hook him up with his sister. Now Jack, who was intent on throwing Jill out of the house, humours her by taking her on a cruise with his family. What happens on the cruise? Is Pacino able to earn the love of Jill? Does Jack get Pacino to star in his advertising film? The rest of the film answers these questions. 
The story of Jack And Jill, by Ben Zook, is ordinary and of the kind one has seen many times before. Just adding the element of a twin sister, whose character is supposed to be funny, does not do the trick. In fact, Jill’s character and mannerisms irritate the audience more than making them laugh, at least in the first half of the film. The screenplay, penned by Steven Koren and Adam Sandler, does not improve on the story; it rather includes random scenes that do not make much sense when put together. One might have overlooked the many easy coincidences in the screenplay had there been enough to laugh at, but there simply isn’t. Why Al Pacino, a movie star, settles for Jill, when he can possibly get any woman he wants, is beyond Jack and also beyond the audience.
Jill is shown to be intelligent enough to make a fool of Jack by convincing her sister-in-law to let her stay back. But she suddenly loses all sense when Jack takes her for a ride. There is no explanation for the change in her mental abilities. Overall, the character of Jill might have been sounded interesting on paper but it is not one which gives rise to comedy, situational as well as slapstick. This is not to say that there aren’t any funny moments in the film. A few jokes of the toilet humour kind will force the audience to laugh out loud, but, unfortunately, that’s about it.
Adam Sandler is alright as Jack but he is a disaster as Jill as he looks too manly. His heavily muscular legs and arms and a faintly high-pitched voice don’t help much. He should not have attempted the double role at all. Al Pacino does well as a crazier version of himself but one dreads to see an actor of such calibre doing an ultimately inconsequential role like this one. Katie Holmes is alright in a blink-and-miss role. Johnny Depp makes a special appearance and is okay. Elodie Tougne and Rohan Chand, as Jack’s kids, do average jobs. Eugenio Derbez, as the Mexican gardener, is woefully miscast. Nick Swardson and Tim Meadows, as Jack’s office colleagues, and David Spade, as Monica, offer average support.
Director Dennis Dungan, who has made us laugh with many Adam Sandler comedies in the past, fails to make the mark this time around. Neither do his jokes work this time nor is he able to go over the top as he had done with Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. He should have taken more care to make Jill look a little more unlike Jack; they are, after all, of two different sexes! Rupert Gregson-Williams’ background score could have been better, as could have been the editing, by Tom Costain. The cinematography, by Dean Cundey, is good. Visual effects have been used very well. Not for a moment does the viewer realise that the shots of Adam Sandler as Jack, and those of him as Jill, have been shot separately and then composited together.
On the whole, Jack And Jill is a below-average fare, a virtual non-entertainer. It will not do anything at the Indian box-office, in spite of the familiarity Indian audiences have with Adam Sandler’s face.
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