Willie-12 Review of Jack and Jill vs. the World

Jack and Jill vs. the World (2008)

One Very Important Element Missing

[4/10 · 24 October 2008]

My wife first heard about Jack and Jill Vs. The World through a movie trailer website, and it was one that she couldn't wait to see. However, to me, it looked like a typical, garden variety romantic comedy...the type of movie that I tolerate because my wife tolerates my kind of movies. However, then I heard about the little twist (Manning's character's cystic fibrosis) and thought that was something that could definitely add a unique element to an otherwise formulaic plot. Well, the movie never came to our city, and I had forgotten all about it. Then the other day, my wife called me from Blockbuster to tell me the "wonderful" news: it was now on DVD. So she rented it, brought it home, and we just got done watching it. First the positive. The acting was pretty decent, and the movie definitely had a few shining moments. One of those included Robert Forster's character and Prinze's character sharing a touching father/son moment. Indeed, Forster was one of the best things about this film. The only problem is that you only hear him most of the time through narration. Finally, the movie did have that one unique element that added some drama, without ever becoming over the top or manipulative. Now the negative. And it's a big one. It is what many people would consider to be the most important component to a movie: The screenplay. I mean, let's be honest, usually a movie will be whatever it's screenplay is. In other words, if a screenplay is good, the movie will probably be good, and vice versa. And the screenplay here is lacking. The dialogue is never really believable, and so the characters are never really believable, and thus there never is an emotional connection made. That's a big problem, especially in a movie where the characters need to be cared about. I never really cared, because they never seemed real. I get the feeling here that this script was a rough draft, and for some reason, no one wanted to take the time to polish it up. That's disappointing. Because this is a movie that had some promise, but because of the screenplay, never had a chance to live up to what it could have been.