Do you ever wish you could fast forward through a dinner with the parents to the next part of your life? Or watch baseball while your wife’s crazy friends are over? “”Click,”” courtesy of a little gadget from Bed, Bath and Beyond, brings this dream to life.
Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a good guy who gets kicked while he’s down in every situation. His neighbor has a better stereo system, he gets turned down for a promotion at his job, the list goes on. Driven by the frustration that nothing ever works in his life, he goes to Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase a universal television remote. What he walks away with, thanks to the wacky scientist Morty (Christopher Walken), is a remote that he can use to fast-forward, pause or mute his life.
At first, he enjoys the perks of having this new control over his life. He can fast-forward through all the work before a promotion or turn down the volume on a fight with his wife. It seems like nothing can go wrong, until the remote gets put on autopilot. Now, in addition to skipping through traffic on the way to work and getting dressed in the morning, the remote skips through other parts of his life and Michael is powerless as his life slips away from him.
As Sandler gets older, it becomes harder for him to keep up the style of comedy that made him famous. The dirty jokes that were funny for a younger Sandler seem ill fitting for a nearly 40-year-old Sandler. He’s caught in a limbo between the dramatic actor of “”Punch-Drunk Love”” and the one of the “”Waterboy”” days.
“”Click”” struggles with this limbo. There are the fart jokes and the kicks to the groin. There is also a melancholy portrayal of a man who realizes the most important things in life are the seemingly unimportant events. His tearful portrayal hits an emotional vein. Each of these different modes is good in its own right.
“”Click””PG-13, 103minHappy Madison Productions6/10
However, the transition between them is too abrupt. The switch between comedy and the drama is jarring, which takes away from whatever charm it had. The juxtaposition of the two styles is ill fitting and jerky, which makes it hard for “”Click”” to tie together as a story.
“”Click”” foreshadows the choice ahead for Sandler – chose one style and excel in it, or continue to turn gems like this into middle-of-the-road fare by trying to fit too much into one.