Jack and Jill (2011 film)

Plot

Homemade videos show fraternal twins Jack and Jill Sadelstein growing up in New York City. Jack is the gifted twin, while Jill constantly tries—and fails miserably—to get his attention by injuring him and/or driving others away from him.

In present-day Los Angeles, Jack (Adam Sandler) is a successful advertising executive who lives with his beautiful wife Erin (Katie Holmes) and their two kids: Sofia/Sofie (Elodie Tougne) and Gary (Rohan Chand), a Hindu child they adopted at birth. Jill (also played by Sandler) never left the working-class neighborhood they grew up in; she recently inherited the Sadelstein home, having lived with their mother until her death one year ago.

As always, Jack is irritated by the upcoming Thanksgiving visit of his sister. Jill ruins Thanksgiving dinner by loudly embarrassing a homeless guest. Jack finally calls her out for making a fool of herself, of him, and of everybody else at the table. Stung, Jill runs off into the woods with her pet cockatoo Poopsie. Erin demands that Jack apologize to his sister, which he very unwillingly does. Jill has a list of things she wants to do while in Los Angeles: be on a game show (The Price is Right, which—despite her horrendous performance—gives Jill a carload of prizes simply to be rid of her); go horseback riding (she proves too big and heavy for the pony, which collapses under her); and do a studio tour. Since Jill has an open-ended plane ticket, she decides to stay until the end of Hanukkah - much to Jack's horror.

Jack's agency client, meanwhile, wants him to somehow get actor Al Pacino to appear in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial. Jack isn't sure how he's supposed to make that happen.

Jill tries online dating. She has no success until Jack poses as Jill and alters her profile, leading to more than 100 responses. Yet when Jill's date - "Funbucket" (Norm Macdonald) - meets her, he sneaks out of the restaurant through the men's room.

Jack takes Jill to a Lakers game where Pacino is supposed to be. Pacino blows off Jack but is taken with Jill and gives her his phone number. Jack was hoping Jill would go back home by New Year's Eve, since the family is going on a cruise. Jack's friends and colleagues throw him a birthday party, extending the invite to Jill. Again Jill loudly disgraces herself, Jack, and the various celebrities in attendance. Pacino invites Jill to his home, where she accidentally destroys his Oscar statuette. Abruptly, she becomes bored with him and leaves. Jack's Mexican gardener Felipe (Eugenio Derbez), who is also taken with Jill, invites her to meet his family at their annual fiesta. There she hits it off with everybody, and tries Mexican food for the first time, thus acquiring a horrible case of diarrhea which makes her even tougher to live with than usual.

Pacino refuses to do the Dunkin' Donuts commercial unless Jack gets him a date with Jill; to that end, Jack invites Jill on the cruise with his family. At sea, while Jill continues making a fool of herself and everyone around her, Jack disguises himself as his own sister and goes on her date with Pacino. Jill suspects that Jack invited her on the cruise just so Pacino would do the commercial; such is confirmed when she phones Jack, he answers as Jill, and then she hears Pacino in the background. Pacino, still believing Jack to be Jill, spells out that he (Pacino) sees much more in her than just a pathetic half-wit...which is what Jack always took her for. Feeling unspeakably guilty, Jack returns to the ship, only to learn that Jill has gone back home to The Bronx. At a restaurant on New Year's Eve, toting a picture of her and Jack's late mother, Jill comes across a group of former classmates who always made fun of her; these classmates, led by Monica (David Spade), pick up directly where they left off...until Jack, his wife and their kids show up. Jack and Jill converse in their made-up twin language (which even Jack finds incomprehensible). Monica attacks Erin and is cold cocked by Jill. Pacino also turns up at the party, dressed as the Man of La Mancha, and tells Jill that while he may have feelings for her, there is another man more worthy of her than himself. She then goes home, where Felipe (the other suitor Pacino was referring to) and his children await her arrival. Felipe professes his love for Jill, and the two begin a relationship.

The television commercial is made, with Pacino starring and singing as he promotes a new coffee—"Dunkaccino" from Dunkin' Donuts—with a rap song. But when Jack shows it to him, Pacino hates it and tells him to destroy every copy of the commercial.

Cast

Box office

The film opened in 3,438 theaters at #2 with $25,003,575, behind Immortals, which debuted in the top spot with $32,206,425. The film closed on February 26, 2012 with a total gross of $74,158,157 in North America. It also made $75,515,631 in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $149,673,788 against its $79 million budget.

Critical reception

Jack and Jill was panned by critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 3% based on 106 reviews and an average rating of 2.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Although it features an inexplicably committed performance from Al Pacino, Jack and Jill is impossible to recommend on any level whatsoever." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 23 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Jason Buchanan of allmovie gave the film his lowest star rating and described it as "aggressively unfunny".

In The Daily Beast, Ramin Setoodeh said, "This is, without a doubt, the worst movie that Adam Sandler’s ever made. In fact, it could be the worst movie ever made." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also argued, "Al Pacino said something great. After he looks at himself in the commercial, he says, 'Burn this! Nobody must ever see this!' That's my review of Jack and Jill." Mary Pols of Time magazine ranked the film #1 on the Top 10 Worst Movies of 2011. The A.V. Club ranked it #1 on "The Worst Films of 2011" list (along with Just Go with It). TV Guide included the film on its "The Worst of 2011" list. Andrew Barker of Variety said that the film's "general stupidity, careless direction and reliance on a single-joke premise that was never really funny to begin with are only the most obvious of its problems." Internet review show Half in the Bag from RedLetterMedia criticized Jack and Jill for recycling gags from Sandler's previous films, incessant product placement, and laziness in terms of both writing and production quality, going so far as to characterize the entire production as a sinister embezzlement scam. They would later call it "the worst thing in the world". The film won a total of 10 Razzies in 2012, setting a record and displacing 2000's Battlefield Earth which had garnered 9 awards.

Despite generally scathing reviews, the film did receive some positive reception. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stated that while he found the character Jill annoying, "almost everything else in this comedy succeeds. The central situation...has comic energy...[the film has] successful bits and big moments of satisfying comedy." Tom Russo of the Boston Globe gave the film two and a half out of a possible four stars, writing "What's more genuinely wacky is what a kick this movie can sometimes be, completely in spite of its big, flat stunt."

Accolades

In the Razzie Awards, Jack and Jill was nominated for every single category, and twice for Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress, and won all 10 awards.

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Jack and Jill on DVD and Blu-ray on March 6, 2012.