Sandler, Barrymore reteam in 'Blended'
Comedy takes mixed-up family to Africa for romance and silliness.
FOR A FILM that opens in a Hooters, with Adam Sandler wearing a Dick's Sporting Goods shirt, "Blended" is a surprisingly honest comedy that explores the challenges of single parenthood.
Early on, some of the dialogue doesn't seem natural and the circumstances that land Jim (Sandler) and Lauren (Drew Barrymore) at the same resort in South Africa are ridiculous.
That word "ridiculous" came to mind a few times in the first half of the film, especially as Terry Crews and his band of omnipresent African singers provide musical narration to Jim and Lauren's awkwardly blossoming romance.
A Sandler film wouldn't be whole without a bit of his patented absurdity. But, there's a certain maturity present this time around.
Sandler gives a genuine portrayal of a widower attempting to raise three young girls, while a divorced Barrymore clearly struggles to rein in her two feisty sons.
Jim is a bit chauvinistic at times, outfitting his daughters in golf shirts and basketball shorts, while naming his middle daughter Espn (Emma Fuhrmann) after the sports network. Meanwhile, Lauren can't give her sons the patriarchal guidance they lack and their father (Joel McHale) doesn't care to.
The film follows the mainstream movie arc: Two unlikely people fall in love, something bad happens and then their love is resolved before the final credits roll.
Usually there are unrealistic, but convenient happenings (often in montage form) that ensure this film formula. But the developments that come after the unlikely rendezvous in Africa are mostly realistic.
The resort itself aims to harmoniously "blend" couples that don't fit the nuclear mold: same-sex couples, remarried couples and even couples forged through adultery.
Jim and Lauren are at first resistant to this blending since it was by accident - an accident too long and bizarre to detail here. Their children are combative, too. But they gradually bond as lions, elephants and wildebeests provide picturesque scenery.
Hilarious performances from Crews and Kevin Nealon make for secondary laughs behind the preposterous-turned-probable relationship brewing between Jim and Lauren.
"Blended" is by all means a modern comedy. That's not to say folks over the age of 30 won't enjoy it (I suspect they will, too). But, the film does well to document the dynamic family structures that make up our world.
A man, a woman and the children they spawned together were once the principal subjects for a family comedy. "Blended" shows us in 2014, that doesn't have to be the case.