CLICK

"Family... Always comes first..."

I enjoy some of what Adam Sandler does. Some. He was hilarious as the new kid on the block on “Saturday Night Live”, and his success continued playing characters who were really just outgrown kids, such as Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. The roles weren’t anything special, but it was hilarious to watch because of how Sandler molded them so suit his style of physical comedy.

Fast-forward ten years or so later to Click. Sandler is pushing forty years old and still trying to use the same gimmicks (and yes, that’s all they are, gimmicks) to force laughs out of his audiences from pure stupidity and crassness. He plays Michael Newman, an architect struggling to balance his work life, in which he is ascending the corporate ladder, with his home life, in which his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and his two children Ben and Samantha love him.

Sorry for making this review almost solely about Sandler, but that is what this movie really is, a vehicle for Sandler to try to broaden his acting abilities. He is given a character that the audience would easily be able to care for, but it is as if he almost doesn’t want to break out of the normal, comfortable, manic man-child approach. His character is supposed to be a good man completely and unfairly bogged down by work, therefore he suffers because he spends less time with his family. Michael doesn’t exactly look like he is suffering though, especially when the kid neighbor comes knocking. The kid is written as an asshole, and is, but Michael is an even bigger one back to him. Consider when the kid is showing off his new ‘robodog’ to Michael’s children, rubbing in how his toy is better than their dog. I’m not sure whose idea it was to get some cheap laughs out of the audience by having Michael run the dog over, be it screenwriters Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe or Sandler. My feeling is it was Sandler’s, who knows his maniacal man-child antics are a good way to get laughs out of teenagers, rather than the screenwriters, who I believed were really trying to construct a character the audience could empathize with.

The story takes a radical turn when Michael is shopping for a universal remote control to make his life simpler, and finds a wacky old coot named Morty (Christopher Walken, who is the best part of the movie by far with his hilarious, albeit too short, performance) in the back of a Bed, Bath, and Beyond store (this is in the “Way Beyond” section of the store). Where Michael wanted a remote to control his TV and stereo, Morty gives him one that controls life. It rewinds, fast forwards, pauses, mutes, and replays life (commentary included).

After a turn like this in a movie, the possibilities are endless. It occurred to me Michael could do anything with a device like this, but he really doesn’t. He doesn’t treat his wife and kids much better, and he doesn’t get much more work done (these are the only two things that have any amount of importance in his life). Playing second-bill to Sandler is Kate Beckinsale, who has no fun in her role. She walks around in underwear for most of the movie, and while I didn’t mind watching it while it was happening, it didn’t serve any purpose to the story in retrospect. In Kate’s fairness, her character is a true bore, a woman who forgives her husband for anything as long as he apologizes (sometimes he doesn’t even have to), meanwhile she is being emotionally abused by having a husband that leaves her and her children in the dust far too often.

Another turn in the movie comes when the remote begins to control life on its own terms. Morty explains that the remote picks up whatever it believes is Michael’s preferences, such as working for a promotion, fighting, foreplay, showers, and traffic, among others. It simply keeps fast-forwarding through these times for as long as the period lasts. These periods become longer and longer, eventually turning into years upon years. Michael gets to see himself as he will be in another thirty years: divorced, fat, and depressed, with few emotional connections left in his life. This is where the movie takes a step up from its trite, awful comedic beginning. Sadly though, it isn’t a big step. Again Sandler takes an opportunity to play a character dramatically and reverts to his stupid philosophy that being retarded will make people laugh. When he finds out that he has just recovered from a heart attack and a liposuction procedure, he plays with his fat rolls instead of listening to his wife.

This film has been compared recently to Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart’s It’s a Wonderful Life because of its end-message that life should be treated as something special, and that it should never be wasted or thrown away. In my opinion, that’s a kick to the groin of Life. If I were to compare the two, I’d say Click is like It’s a Wonderful Life, but with a man-child laugh-whore instead of Jimmy Stewart, without memorable characters, with fart jokes, and a message that doesn’t contain nearly as much relevance and comes off as forced and pathetic. If you want to see a heartfelt movie with the core message, but not surrounded by Adam Sandler’s ego and fart jokes, watch Cars.

D+