The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

Adam Sandler Clicks with Fans

Adam Sandler once again takes on the role of a family man in Click, a comedy/drama hybrid from the writers of Bruce Almighty that literally has all the ingredients to make an audience laugh, cry, and scratch their heads.
Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a workaholic architect desperately trying to appease his boss and become a partner at his firm in order to provide his family the kind of life he never had. In doing so, Michael shuts himself off from his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and their two children.
Much like his inability to successfully control the numerous responsibilities of his life, Michael’s house is riddled with different devices to control the family’s insane number of electronics, which only confuse him as he searches for the right one during his down-time.
His search for a universal remote control to simplify his electronic jungle leads him to the local Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Hidden in the back of the store is a door marked “Beyond,” resembling a janitor’s closet.
This obscure area is manned by Morty (Christopher Walken), who tells Michael that they have just received a brand new, state-of-the-art universal remote. Morty gives him the remote free of charge, explaining that sometimes nice guys “need a break.”
With the true power of the remote unbeknownst to him, Michael takes it home and resumes his night as usual. Upset with his dog’s constant barking, Michael attempts to lower the dog’s voice using the remote without actually expecting it to work. To his amazement however, his dog’s bark becomes a silent animation, and Michael learns that his new toy can do more than change the channel.
Similar to Jim Carrey’s character in Bruce Almighty, Michael begins to abuse the power of the remote in order to make his life easier. He fast-forwards through mundane tasks like showering, dressing, and the almost ungodly commute from New York suburbia to Manhattan skyscrapers.
Michael eventually decides to fast-forward to his real goal, doing well enough at his job to becomea partner at his firm and live the glamour life.
Unfortunately what he thought would take a couple of months actually takes him a year, and now his marriage is falling apart and the remote is operating on memory – automatically skipping over events he typically fast forwarded. Needless to say, the memory feature of the remote wrecks his life, and before he knows it he’s an old man torn from his family and accompanied only by his work.
Morty serves as a guide to his life, almost serving as the ghosts in a modern-day retelling of “A Christmas Carol.”
The movie turns from a comedy to a tearjerker, but the script incorporates cheap jokes and running gags that seem thrown in to keep it true to its comedic roots. Consequently these only strip credence from the story’s strong, if not clich√© and predictable, message.
“You were fast-forwarding through your life long before you ever met me,” Morty tells Michael. It’s at this point where the message of the story is clear. The remote hasn’t enslaved Michael; his behavior had always remained the same. The remote simply threw him into auto-pilot by doing what he would have done anyway.
The problem for moviegoers is that Click is marketed as a comedy, but the large majority of its second half has you reaching for tissues more than your sides. People looking to jump headfirst into a good time are bound to get blindsided by the drama.
Click may be a bit clich√©, and a half-hour too long, but it is a solid flick that tells a great moral story through a solitary Sandler line: “Family comes first.”

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