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It's hard for me to think of Adam Sandler as a serious actor. Sure, he was
in that movie "Punch Drunk Love" that I saw part of and never had a
desire to finish, but when I think of Adam Sandler I think of "Big
Daddy," "Happy Gilmore," and "Water Boy." Maybe
that's why someone decided that it would be a good idea to advertise
Sandler's newest film, "Click," as though it were strictly a silly
slapstick comedy, following the formulas of his other popular movies. On the
billboards for "Click," Adam Sandler appears holding a strangely
giant remote with buttons that reads: "Rewind: Prom Night,"
"Fast Forward: Work Out," "Slo-mo: Kids Growing Up" and
other such phrases. The movie is indeed about what the billboard advertised:
a man who has a remote control with the ability to control his life and which
has the capabilities to perform any of the functions represented on the
billboard. The discrepancy between the movie and the billboard lies in the
simple fact that in the movie Adam Sandler does not use the remote for
any of the functions mentioned in the billboard. He does rewind and
fast forward, but there is no mention of prom night, working out or slowing
down his children's aging process. The preview for the movie is similarly
misleading as it depicted "Click" as just another dumb comedy.
After seeing both the advertisements and the preview for
"Click," I was extremely surprised to see that it received a
favorable review from Mick LaSalle, one of the Chronicle's harshest movie
critics. I was also surprised to find out that he was right and that the
advertisements had been misleading. "Click" is far from the comedy
that its advertising portrays. It is a healthy blend of comedy and
seriousness that gives it a realistic quality which movies that pick one
genre do not often achieve. Although the previews seem to appeal to the
allure of having a remote with which you can skip tedious or unpleasant
tasks, the movie ultimately warns against this kind of living for the future,
a state of being which occurs when you are fast-forwarding through your life,
called being on "auto-pilot."
Although the plot of the movie is fairly simple, the script is so well
written that the audience gets the sense that the characters are real people,
despite the implausible universal remote. Sandler delivers an excellent
performance, which may be only one on the road to a career of serious acting.
He plays a dad who is trying to become a partner at his architecture firm,
but who doesn't have enough time to work his way up the promotion ladder and
to spend quality time with his family. He continually blows off family events
so that he can work hard to impress his boss, presumably so that he can
become partner, make more money and have more time to spend with his
family while those under his command do all the work. In the movie he is
forced to rethink his plan for success and ask himself if it will be worth
it. The moral of the story is that sometimes you need to look around and make
sure you're not fast-forwarding through things you don't want to miss. The
movie does a wonderful job of conveying its message by drawing in the
audience with the allure of being able to fast-forward through life and then
pointing out what they could be missing. It illustrates the way many
Americans are living today with the state of "auto-pilot" and asks
us to reassess what we're fast-forwarding to achieve.
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