Jack and Jill
2011 · Directed by Dennis Dugan
Original language: English
- comedy
- family
The story
Jack Sadelstein, a successful advertising executive in Los Angeles with a beautiful wife and kids, dreads one event each year: the Thanksgiving visit of his twin sister Jill. Jill's neediness and passive-aggressiveness is maddening to Jack, turning his normally tranquil life upside down.
What it’s like
Bright, sun-filled Los Angeles daylight, glossy studio polish, and a warm, cluttered family house decked out for the holidays make this a comfortable comedy to look at. Scenes are mostly well-lit medium shots of kitchens, backyards and a crowded Thanksgiving table, with broad, mugging performances in the foreground and little visual ambition beyond keeping the gags readable. The score is light and upbeat, and the rhythm is loud and sitcom-quick, with sudden escalations and a few warm pauses. It's a rowdy, low-stakes holiday romp with a sibling-squabble engine: a man who wants his orderly life back and a relative who won't leave it alone. The tone is goofy, impatient and affectionate. Intensity is mild: slapstick, bickering, insults and crude sexual jokes, with no gore and no real menace. It suits a lazy holiday evening, a family movie night with teens, or anyone who wants silly, easy laughs and doesn't mind broad comedy.
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