Summer is here and all the big blockbusters are around the corner. We've already seen the God of Thunder crash into theaters and Johnny Depp returned as Captain Jack Sparrow earlier this week at Cannes. But since I've been banned from international travel as a result of an empty bank account, I had to settle for Adam Sandler's comedy Click.
Now, from my point of view I think Sandler's filmography has been much like an avalanche. Billy Madison aside (though I do think it's funny), they start out with a little pebble of heart, just enough to keep you warm between the comedic gags. But as the years passed, Sandler has continued to try and shove any thematic moral he can pull out of a plot while trying to maintain its completely absurd premise. With that, we have our low point and the obliteration of Sandler's credibility for choosing good films.
But in the middle of this slow moving disaster, we have Click. A film about a workaholic (Sandler) who acquires a remote from a mysterious figure (Christopher Walken) and now has the ability to fast forward and rewind parts of his life which leads him on a journey about what should really matter in our lives. Anyone who hasn't seen the movie can still probably guess the ending.
I am curious as to how writers Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe had originally ended the film. It seemed aching for a cold twist, not a sappy Disney ending, about the reality of how precious each minute in our lives can be. But since it's a Sandler film we know it's going to go that route no matter how big of a prick our main character can be. There were countless moments I was actually glad that this selfish jerk had terrible things happen to him and I wished the film would end there, but no, it had to keep going...
My major problem with Click is Sandler, and not just because of what attaching him to the project meant for the story but also because he is the one tasked with carrying the emotional weight of the film, i.e. why we give a crap. A good example of a film who carries a similar thematic thread but does it with much more class is Jim Carrey's Bruce Almighty. I can't help but compare the two films because they have supernatural elements given to a man in a struggling career who's trying to balance his family life with work. For that matter, you could even throw Liar, Liar into this category. The big difference here is that for some reason Sandler forgot how to carry the emotional weight of the film. Carrey has proven to be an over the top comedic actor who can still anchor a theme (even while wrestling women), but Sandler simply doesn't have it in Click.
I'd like to give him some slack though, as the supporting cast only reassure the idea that this script could have been something funny with real consequence, but whether by the studio or Sandler's attachment it reverted into a childish version of A Christmas Carol. Kate Beckinsale does a nice job as a hot actress who would like to play a loving mother/wife, but I think they were hoping that she would actually come off as a loving mother/wife.
And as much as I love Christopher Walken, I can't help but think he, like Beckinsale, is only shoehorned into this movie because of his name rather than being good for the role of Morty. Not once do we ever get the angry, sharp tone of Walken that we've all come to know, but instead he's sympathetic to the plight of humanity and comes off as stale and boring.
I might be expecting too much out of Click, true, but I don't think I should have to dumb down my hope and optimism for incredibly drawn out fart jokes that I stopped finding funny years ago, you know, like when I grew up. I do think it's got an incredibly deep premise, full of possibility but squanders all of them in exchange for childish thoughts of farts, boobs, and, well, Adam Sandler. If that's your sort of thing, then maybe you'll love Click, and bless you for doing so. I myself simply wanted to fast-forward through it.
Rating: 2 out of 5
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