06/13/10 - Click

Click (2006, 107 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/

Again, no real reason why I decided today was the day to finally see Click. Pretty much a random selection but let's see how it works out.

The film follows Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) as he gains control of a universal remote control for his life. The remote is provided by the crazy Morty (Christopher Walken). Donna Newman, Michael's wife, is played by the incredibly beautiful Kate Beckinsale. Smaller roles are given to: David Hasselhoff as Michael's boss Ammer, and Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner as Michael's parents Ted and Trudy.

I didn't really know what to expect with this film. It was obvious from it being a 2006 Adam Sandler film that there would be lots of (in my opinion forced) comedy so I was preparing myself for that. I'd also heard that the ending is incredibly emotional and that the film frequently veers away from its comedy roots. After giving it a watch, I agree completely with these comments. I'm reminded of the film It's a Wonderful Life which I haven't seen. I get the impression these are pretty similar in a lot of ways and from what I've read it was a common complaint against the film. Anyway, I'll address the two aspects of the film in two separate paragraphs.

First, there's the Adam Sandler comedy. I'm not a big fan at all. Really, I don't think I found myself laughing but once or twice here. Sandler isn't funny when he talks in that strange voice that he does all too frequently. There's also crude humor at various points. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, these all seemed to find their way into the trailer so I was prepared most for them and they just didn't faze me or take me out of the movie. They still failed in their objective however. It's been shown from various movies that Sandler actually can act when he chooses to and there's a few times in this film where he shows that he can supply natural and unforced humor as well. However, in the end, I'm not going to remember this film for the successful jokes it made.

Click will instead be remembered by me for the sudden emotional twist it takes in the final act. Click turns out to be an extremely moving film and it plays up its strengths really well. Though I can't really compare the viewing to a viewing of It's a Wonderful Life I can compare it to The Blind Side. This might seem odd, but I have a reason for this. Both The Blind Side and Click play up their strengths to perfection. Once Click moves away from being the silly comedy and being a serious and moving film, it really works well in giving its message. It doesn't pound it into the ground that we shouldn't want to fast forward our lives. It just gives you this situation and lets you realize for yourself how important daily moments are. There's various ways to give this message but the way Click does it is the best way. Sure, there's a gaping plot hole that Michael could figure out how to use the remote better and instead of pretty much only using fast forward he could use pause and rewind and other stuff. But in my opinion, because of the way the movie handles itself, all of this is forgiven. Similarly, in this final act, all of Sandler's stupidity from previously in the film is forgiven as he actually goes serious and does well. Winkler gives some amazing minutes here at the end when Newman rewinds to see the last time he met his dad. This was easily the most tearjerking moment of them all.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. Just like The Blind Side, Click isn't an incredible movie but it knows when to play up its strengths. Plus, Kate Beckinsale is just ridiculously good looking throughout so that has to be worth something.