I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Turturro, Richard Chamberlain

Director: Dennis Dugan

There are a few good chuckles, but many more uncomfortable moments in this Adam Sandler comedy that's likely to offend more people than it amuses.

Larry (James), a New York fireman, is a widower who's told his children will not get insurance money should he die - unless he has a new partner. A near-death experience in a burning building impels Larry to ask his womanising best buddy Chuck (Sandler), also a firefighter - who's so randy he even beds the doctor (Chandra West) at the hospital where he and Larry are recuperating - to be his domestic partner in a counterfeit gay relationship.

Despite being warned of possible jail sentences for fakers by the lawyer (Biel) Chuck fancies, they go through with it, even getting married at a love chapel. A City snoop (Buscemi) smells a rat (or two) and determines to bring the pair to book.

To say that the following script and situations are unsubtle is putting it mildly - but it wouldn't be so bad if characters weren't broadened beyond the bounds of believability. And fire chief Aykroyd's intervention at the end has no convincing function other than to get the right sexual partners together for the fadeout.

Sandler offers a last-gasp homily on what the experience has taught him, but it will be too little and too late to soothe most ruffled feathers. La Cage aux Folles in reverse it ain't.

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour by deluxe.
115 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 16 Sep 2007