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I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY (PG-13)

Plot Summary: Two heterosexual firefighters pretend to be a gay couple in order to ensure pension benefits for one of the men’s children.

Reason for the Rating: Crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language and drug references.

In recent years, a relatively new variety of summer movie has hit theaters: the lewd and dirty comedy. Movies like Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year-Old Virgin have opened to enormous popularity, and as a result this summer seems to be flooded with movies trying to be both vulgar and hilarious at the same time. Adam Sandler’s new movie, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, seems to be one of this summer’s attempts to repeat the success of Crashers and Virgin. Unfortunately, though, while definitely vulgar, Chuck and Larry isn’t really funny at all. In fact, it’s pretty lame.

The basic premise of the movie is that Larry Valentine (played by Kevin James), a single dad who is still heartbroken—even though it happened a few years ago—over the death of his wife, wants to get his pension plan benefits transferred to his children in case he passes. He is a Brooklyn firefighter, and he’s afraid that in his dangerous line of work he could leave his children with nothing if they aren’t legally named his beneficiaries. Unfortunately, his pension is still in his late wife’s name, and since he waited over a year to do anything about it, he can’t change it. The only truly feasible way for him to change it now is for him to get married and to pass the benefits along to his new wife…..or husband.

That’s right, since Larry can’t even imagine himself married to anyone new, he comes up with what movie producers evidently consider a “crazy scheme.” His best friend and partner firefighter, Chuck (played by Adam Sandler), owes him a huge favor, so Larry convinces Chuck to form a domestic partnership with him. Domestic partnerships are legal in New York, and if the two of them pretend to be a gay couple and become legally recognized Larry can pass his benefits on to Chuck, who can in turn take care of the kids. At first Chuck, a notorious womanizer, is against the plan, but soon Larry convinces him that no one will need to know about it, and so Chuck agrees. Of course, this doesn’t turn out to be as simple as Larry promises. Apparently, the government is wary of people who pretend to be gay to reap the financial benefits, and so Chuck and Larry are immediately put under scrutiny. If they are found to be lying, they face serious penalty. To top it all off, Chuck finds himself attracted to the gorgeous lawyer (played by Jessica Biel) he and Larry hire to help them prove their case. How can he pretend to be gay when he is so attracted to the one person he really has to convince?

Maybe some of you reading this right now have already spotted the problems that exist in this plot. You’re probably wondering how it’s possible that the state of New York would not allow two children to benefit from their father’s pension if he dies. Or why a man afraid of being killed on the job would choose to pass the responsibility for his children on to his partner—a partner who faces these exact same dangers. Or how two people are supposed to “prove” themselves to be legitimately gay and why this is supposed to be funny in some way. But believe me, those are the least of Chuck and Larry’s problems.

First, though this movie tries very hard with its numerous crass jokes and gimmicks, it just isn’t very funny. I more often than not felt uncomfortable rather than amused at a particular gay joke or ethnic slur. And I’m not one to let a little inappropriate humor ruin a movie for me. In the end, if it’s funny I can usually get past the content, but this movie just crossed the line in weird ways. Whether it was Rob Schneider playing an Asian man with exaggerated stereotypes or Chuck and Larry offering up numerous derogatory reasons as to why they were indeed gay, the movie seemed more biting than funny. I found myself shaking my head rather than laughing much of the time.

All that perfectly leads into the fact that the movie is inappropriate for kids and is full of dirty humor and semi-nudity. Funny or not, there is nothing wholesome about this film. I’ll spare the details, but the reason for the rating does a pretty good job of summing it up. This is not a movie for families by any stretch of the imagination.

The film is also about twice as long as it should be. You can only stretch the “two straight guys pretending to be gay” humor so far, and Chuck and Larry stretches it to the breaking point. This breaking point comes towards the end of the movie, where everything just seems to fall apart. The plot loses steam, the jokes die, and although the token “touching moment” is supposed to ensue, it ends up just being confusing and strange. At this point in the movie I literally turned to the friend I’d brought along to watch with me and said, “This movie has really crashed and burned.”

And it had. I won’t tell you what happens, but I will emphatically say that it doesn’t work very well. As I think back, I see Chuck and Larry as one big downward spiral, ending in a confusing and simple-minded heap after nearly two hours of definitely not being hilarious. And who wants to watch a downward spiral this summer—especially if it’s not hilarious?.

FAMILYFANS RECOMMENDS:

Despite its comic actors' pedigrees, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry just isn’t worth your time or money. Pass on this one.

AFTER THE SHOW: 

• Why do you think Chuck ultimately agreed to help Larry? What does this teach us about friendship and sacrifice?

• What are some of the stereotypes depicted in this movie and how are they harmful?

• How are Christians portrayed in this movie? What do you think about this portrayal? Explain.

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