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Sandler Does Comedy. Drama. Click. Rewind. FF. At one point in "Click", Michael Newman (Adam Sandler), a workaholic architect struggling to juggle family commitments with his job, uses a new remote control to keep repeating a scene in his life. Play. Rewind. Play. Rewind. He doesn't want the memory to end. I wish I had been able to do this, been able to just keep playing the funny parts over and over again, bypassing the "dramatic" second half of the film. Let's take a look at the Universal Remote Michael receives from Morty (Christopher Walken), a strange scientist working in the backroom of Bed, Bath and Beyond. FF to Story... Michael Newman and his wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale, "Pearl Harbor", "Underworld") live in suburbia with their two kids, Ben and Samantha. Michael has a difficult time juggling commitments to his family (he has to cancel a camping trip on 4th of July weekend) with the demands of his boss, Ammer (David Hasselhoff), who keeps giving him more work as he dangles the promise of a promotion as a carrot in front of Michael. Almost at his breaking point and fed up with the proliferation of remotes in his house, Michael sets off to find a Universal Remote. Stopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond, he finds Morty, who promises Michael he has something that will "rock your world". Returning home with the new gadget, Michael finds he can turn down the volume on his dog, fast forward through arguments with Donna, boring family dinners with his mom and dad (Julie Kavner and Henry Winkler) and fast forward through the (dreaded) massage part of sex with his wife. He can also pause his boss while he takes out his aggressions, hitting Ammer repeatedly in the face, before resuming the discussion. But the Universal Remote has some awesome powers and Michael doesn't heed Morty's warnings. ACCESS Special Features: Actors Adam Sandler is a funny guy. In limited doses. Much of the comedy in "Click" comes from grumbled responses under his breath, slipping in an insult or note of exasperation. And much of this humor is funny. He rushes to his son's swim meet and arrives just as it is ending. He runs to the side of the pool, congratulating who he thinks is his son but is actually an Asian kid. When the kid wipes the water out of his eyes, he says "You're not my father". Sandler responds, in a lower voice "At least as far as you know." As Sandler walks away, the kid anxiously asks his parents "He's not my Dad is he?" It's a funny moment, and there are more of them, all involving Michael getting pissed off at a neighbor kid, or bad kids at the park, and similar types of situations. But there are two problems with this. All of the jokes are concentrated in the first half of the film. And because Michael is such a jerk towards people outside of the family, he sometimes has difficulty turning this off when he interacts with his family. As Michael plays around with the new remote, the filmmakers have a field day allowing Sandler one opportunity after another to make fun of or comment on his current way of life, which is very similar to how many of us live. He changes himself into different colors, he makes Ammer change sizes (widescreen, zoom, pan and scan, etc.). While these are funny, they are also rather juvenile and don't help advance the plot or have any connection to the story. But about halfway through the film, everyone and everything takes a dramatic turn. It almost seems like the filmmakers felt they had to make the film 'substantial' in some regard, so they decide to make it dramatic, moving completely away from the comedy. SKIP forward to Chapter 10. As Michael uses the gadget to control more and more of his life, the film suddenly takes a turn to high drama; Michael begins missing events in his life, there is a divorce, a heart attack, death, obesity, a wedding and more. Is this the same film? The two halves are not blended well. Everything would be a lot smoother if there were elements of drama during the first half, interspersed with the comedy and vice versa. As it is, there are two definite halves of the film, which don't blend. Sandler seems to realize he won't always be the star of multi-million dollar comedies. In the last few years, he has been making more family centered big-budget comedies while occasionally venturing into "dramedy", comedies with more dramatic themes. Unfortunately, few people saw "Punch Drunk Love", the film directed by P.T. Anderson ("Boogie Nights", "Magnolia") featuring a pretty good performance from Sandler. On the other hand, it is very fortunate very few people saw the dismal James L. Brooks' film "Spanglish" co-starring a shrill, completely unbearable Tea Leoni. But making films like "Click" isn't going to help Sandler sustain a long career because it doesn't show off his ability to work in either genre well. If he wants to make a drama, he needs to make a good It won't fit. Please read the full review at thornhillatthemovies.com email this review to a friend
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