I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Imagine the worst possible form of celluloid torture. Imagine tasteless, dated stereotypes mixed with the most basic, lowest-common-denominator type of humour. Imagine two hours of cringe-worthy dialogue that will leave you confused as to why the cinema is actually alive with scattered laughter (is Australia really that stupid?). We’ve all seen these kinds of movies before; their mind numbing plot twists and their flinch-inspiring jokes are painful in their eerie familiarity. These are the kind of movies that inspire people to leave cinemas before their conclusions, and occasionally result in moderately amusing conversation starters. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is the quintessential example of this type of cinema.

From its introduction, this film’s tone is inscribed clearly into every shred of dialogue, every plot ‘development’ and every new character. The tone is one of painful, base humour, and ridiculously overused (and often very dated) stereotypes - exemplified right from the kick-off, with the ‘typical’ “bodacious female twins make out for the pleasure of the male protagonist” opening scene. From there, the concept is that Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Kevin James), two uber-heterosexual firemen, must feign homosexuality in order to obtain a gay marriage and thus ensure that the children of the recently-widowed Larry would be protected, were he to die as part of his particularly dangerous day job.

This is a film with its heart in the right place – but these good intentions are heavily misguided. While the film attempts to dress up its conclusion in pride symbols and pro-equality rhetoric, the very fact that Chuck and Larry are actually straight really does make a mockery out of the concept of same-sex marriage. Why on earth would the gay community be so supportive of two people who are abusing, and essentially ridiculing, the rights that they have worked so hard for? The film seems to completely ignore this gaping contradiction. Furthermore, every single gay cast member is a flat and predictable cliché, and homosexuals aren’t the only ones to suffer from what could only be described as a ‘pre-pubescent’ sense of humour. Obese people, Eastern Europeans, the homeless and (especially) Asians are all tarnished with the same brush in this film. Let’s just say that I would rather adopt a false sexual identity for the rest of my life than sit through this piece of tripe again.

Rating: 2.0