oscar run xvii: click (frank coraci, 2006)
Thursday, February 08, 2007
What are the odds that a person watching Oscar-nominated movies would end up staring at Adam Sandler? Before this year, the odds were zero. Click is the first Sandler movie to get an Oscar nomination (for makeup), and so it becomes the first Adam Sandler movie I have seen in more than a decade. Prior to this I’d seen two: Airheads, where Sandler is not the lead (which no one liked but I found amiable … it has Brendan Fraser, who can make anything amiable), and Billy Madison, which people liked but I thought was so crappy I never bothered to see another of his films. It’s safe to say, if I don’t “get” modern comedy, I REALLY don’t get Adam Sandler, who admittedly did make me laugh the first time I heard “The Longest Pee” (I quit laughing before the end of that first time, and haven’t laughed since). So I am not the best judge of Click … I can’t compare it to Spanglish or 50 First Dates or The Wedding Singer or Happy Gilmore, because I never saw any of them.
Looking at his credits without seeing the movies, I’d venture a guess that Sandler is trying to expand his reach beyond the base of young men who will laugh at anything he does … kinda like Jim Carrey. Click has its share of bodily-function jokes, but it also tries to push a moral. As everyone has noted, it’s an oddball remake of It’s a Wonderful Life, another movie I like less than do most people. The Capra film, a Xmas tradition and rumored to be a family treasure, is actually quite dark. The darkness comes from what befalls the hero. Click farts around with darkness, but its heart isn’t in the effort. On the one hand, we’re supposed to feel for Sandler’s character as he places work over family and ruins his life in the process (there’s your moral: family is more important than work). On the other hand, when Sandler is acting out his jerkiness, we’re supposed to laugh (his Universal Remote allows him to pause the world, among other things, giving him the opportunity to fart in David Hasselhoff’s face, kick Sean Astin in the balls, arrange to have a little kid hit in the face with a baseball, that kind of thing). Sometimes those scenes are funny, but they don’t do much to shore up the so-called moral. It’s as if the movie has to stop its inexorable and inevitable procession of Workaholics Are Bad stuff so that Sandler’s fart fans can have a few moments to chuckle over.
Sandler himself is another problem. He can be funny, and when he’s not being funny, he doesn’t stink. But that’s faint praise, and when he is required to show real emotion in a couple of meant-to-be heart-wrenching scenes, he’s not up to the challenge.
And the makeup, the reason I watched the movie in the first place? It runs hot and cold … fat Sandler doesn’t really work, but Kate Beckinsale looks great in her aged mode, and Sandler himself looks very believable in his middle-aged makeup. It’s nothing you haven’t seen done better in The Nutty Professor, but then, what else is gonna get a Best Makeup nom?
I had Punch Drunk Love recommended to me by the best Rhetoric prof I had at Berkeley and it quickly became one of my favorite movies. Emily Watson stands out a whole lot more than Sandler, but the movie uses his mannerisms to good effect and the movie has simply one of the most amazing and bewildering pre-coital discussions I've ever seen.
Posted by: Artfan | Thursday, February 08, 2007 at 10:45 PM
My wife turned me into a bit of an Adam Sandler fan. Well, not a "fan," exactly, but someone who generally likes what he does on the screen, even if most of the movies themselves are entirely predictable. I think what I find most compelling about him is his voice: he speaks softly, sort of in a thinking-to-himself kind of way, that makes you want to lean in to hear what he's actually trying to say. Best movie I've seen of his is *The Wedding Singer* (which, again, is not really a great movie, but it's a great vehicle for him). I'd need to see *Punch Drunk Love* again, but it didn't leave a great impression at the time. It has visual flair, certainly, but it struck me as a a far too self-conscious attempt to "uncover" the rage that's often in Sandler's character (and in fact is more full blown and funny in *The Wedding Singer*).
Posted by: scott | Friday, February 09, 2007 at 06:54 AM
I never thought I'd ever watch a Sandler film, either, but http://imdb.com/title/tt0371246/>Spanglish gives Sandler the chance to show us how he tries to be a good father, husband, and boss while struggling with his own personal happiness. Sure, it has lots of humor, but not the 12-year-old boy humor he is more famous for. I enjoyed this film, surprisingly. Cloris Leachman is a hoot, and Paz Vega is simply and utterly beautiful.
Posted by: Chris | Friday, February 09, 2007 at 07:34 AM
I like most of Sandler's movies. They're funny. When I go to see a Sandler movie I'm not looking for a plot, acting, or really anything but laughs and since laughing is my favorite thing to do it usually works out for me. I would still have to say Punch Drunk Love is my favorite Sandler movie even though it is much different than most of his leave-your-brain-at-home-and-laugh movies. For some reason I feel like as long as I can watch The Hot Chick, Dumb and Dumber, or Happy Gilmore and still laugh my ass off, I haven't fully lost myself to adulthood. Realistically, it's probably just a generational thing.
On a side note, have you rented The Man Who Knew Too Little yet?
Posted by: Julie | Friday, February 09, 2007 at 09:06 AM
I just added Man Who Knew Too Little to my queue. The rest of my response got so long, I made it into a separate post.
Posted by: Steven | Friday, February 09, 2007 at 09:23 AM
I did not start out as a Sandler fan, but as a 44 y/o mom of 3 boys, I see his laughter, charm and even his talent. I loved Punch Drunk Love, and can't wait to see Reign' O'ver Me..I loved Click and yes I cried, I cried for 50 First Dates too....I am a fan now!
Posted by: Maxine | Monday, February 26, 2007 at 01:56 PM