Just Go with It

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Just Go With It is a 2011 Romantic Comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.

Sandler plays Dr. Danny Maccabees, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who, for most of his adult life, has pretended to be an unhappily married man in order to engage in one-night stands with women. At a party, he meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), a young schoolteacher with whom, for the first time in his life, he feels a real connection. Matters become complicated when Palmer discovers Danny's wedding ring, and runs away, assuming he cheated on his wife with her.

Aniston plays Katherine Murphy, a divorced mother of two children, and Danny's long-time friend and faithful office assistant. Reluctantly, Katherine agrees to pretend to be Danny's so-to-be-ex-wife, so as to give Palmer the impression his marriage was already over and she didn't ruin it.

Eventually, the web of lies spins out of control, eventually involving Katherine's two kids Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck), as well as Danny's socially-inept cousin Eddie, and Katherine's old college rival Devlin Adams (Nicole Kidman).

The film was critically mauled, and currently holds a rating of 19% on Rottentomatoes; however, it was a commercial success.

Tropes used in Just Go with It include:


  • Alpha Bitch: Devlin Adams.
  • Back-Alley Doctor: One of Danny's patients comes to him to get corrected after going to one of these.
  • Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Danny's fiancee's prep room is right next to the men's room, which allows him to overhear his fiancee and her bridesmaids discussing her real reason for marrying him.
  • The Beard: Katherine plays this role for Danny. Since she's playing his adulterous soon-to-be-ex-wife, Eddie plays The Beard for her as well.
    • Danny also does this for Katherine in front of Devlin.
  • Becoming the Mask: In pretending to be husband and wife, Danny and Katherine fall in love for real.
  • Butt Monkey: Eddie
  • Camp Gay: The concierge at the Hilton resort, and the high-end hairdresser Danny hires for Katherine.
  • The Cameo: In the end, Palmer ends up getting together with a tennis player played by Andy Roddick, Brooklyn Decker's real-life husband.
  • Christmas Cake: Katherine has a tendency to see herself this way.
  • Fake Nationality: Invoked by Eddie, who's posing as Katherine's paramour Dolph Lundgren.
  • Fan Service: The hula contest between Aniston and Kidman. Also, Brooklyn Decker spends much of the film wearing not much more than a bikini.
  • Fawlty Towers Plot: It would seem Danny will stop at nothing to maintain the farce that he's soon-to-be divorced rather than come clean with Palmer about his scheme.
  • Gag Nose: Danny had one at the beginning of the film. His first order of business after taking up plastic surgery and womanizing was to get a nose-job.
  • Gold Digger: The only reason Danny's cheating fiancee wanted to marry him.
  • Groin Attack: Danny suffers one at the hands of a plank on a rope bridge when the two adjacent planks give way. Preferable to falling to ones death, but still quite painful.
  • Invention Pretension: Devlin helps her husband Ian maintain the farce that he invented the iPod.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Much like many of Sandler's other roles. Lampshaded by Katherine.
  • Ladykiller in Love: After a lifetime of one-night stands, Danny finds himself falling in love for real. Just not with who he thinks he is.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Both Maggie and Michael, the former of whom blackmails Danny into paying for her acting classes, and the latter of whom lets loose the crocodile tears in front of Palmer to manipulate Danny into taking the lot of them to Hawaii.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Brooklyn Decker is a world-famous supermodel who has appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition multiple times. Do I really need to explain any more?
  • Name Face Mismatch Poster: Seen here.
  • Overly Long Gag: Substituting Devlin for "shit" or "crap" and the "Soul Patch" thing.
  • Product Placement: Pizza Hut, as well as a number of high-end fashion retailers.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: To quote Richard Roeper:

We're supposed to root for Danny, and we're told he has a big heart, but this is a guy who's been lying to women for 25 years. A guy who throws a little girl into a mud pit. A guy whose master plan includes marrying Palmer on a lie and then telling her those fake kids of his have been killed in a tragic accident. WHAT A CATCH!

    • He does have a big heart, he just doesn't see the value in it because all it did was get broken by his fiancee, at least until Palmer and Katherine. Also the first time he had a one-night stand he was actually telling the truth.
  • Runaway Groom: Danny jilts Palmer at the altar. Oddly it happens offscreen suggesting that the filmakers were unwilling to risk Danny loosing audience sympathy by actually showing him dumping the very sweet natured and likable Palmer. Katherine doesn't even ask how Palmer took the news.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Nicole Kidman as Devlin.
  • Stunt Casting: Some critics wondered if Bailee Madison was cast simply because her name was similar to Adam Sandler's debut movie. Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthews are more traditional examples.
  • Suck E. Cheese's
  • Unusual Euphemism: Out of contempt for her college rival, Katherine and her kids use "Devlin" as a euphemism for "shit". This becomes a Running Gag as many innocuous-sounding sentences using the name "Devlin" suddenly become scatological jokes.

Palmer:Her name is Devlin?
Danny: Shitty name, isn't it?