Profound experience

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2015)

Adam Sandler is the last person you'd go to for a profound message about wasting one's life. His film Click is incorrectly stuffed in the same category as his rubbish films like You Don't Mess With the Zohan. Don't get me wrong, all the flaws are still there - Rob Schneider cast as another race, lots of dog humping jokes, Sandler's character being married to a woman way out of his league and his everyday struggles with his perfect life. But all of those things can be forgiven because Click's screenplay is almost perfect.
Sandler's character is an architect on the verge of being made partner. He has to keep sacrificing moments of his life to grease his promotion and impress his boss (perfectly portrayed by David Hassellhoff as a handsome buffoon). In his frustration at one of life's little hassles, he discovers the "Beyond" section of Bed, Bath and Beyond and a wacky salesman named Marty who gives him a prototype universal remote. At first its just a bit of fun, but its when Sandler discovers the fast-forward feature - and later, that the remote learns his habits and does things automatically - where the movie starts its message. Its neither subtle nor in your face, making it accessible for adults and children (as I was when I first saw this film). Sandler starts skipping through big chunks of his life in order to get to the next promotion, costing him his wife, kids, health and everything that actually made life special.
Sandler is just playing Adam Sandler in the film, but when we get the final act and he must climb out of bed to stop his son from cancelling his honeymoon for work, its probably closest to the best I've ever seen from him. Christopher Walken has a lot of fun as the kooky Marty, although the film would have worked completely fine without the stupid scene at the graveyard where Marty is revealed to be the Angel of Death. See how they took out the Rowan Atkinson angel plot in Love, Actually and how it still worked perfectly. Sean Astin is funny in a small role as the swim teacher who takes over Sandler's family, and Kate Beckinsdale, Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner all have their sweet moments as Sandler's wife and parents. The death of Michael's father late in the film is close to heartbreaking.
Got to take a moment to talk about the hair and make up in this film - wow. Beckinsdale, Astin, Winkler and Kavner are most convincingly transformed between ages and it looks completely natural, which is rare these days (looking at you Jersey Boys). Sandler's fat suit looks CGI and terrible, but his fat flap is an easy laugh and looks hilariously real.
There might be more meaningful movies out there from more accomplished talents, but Click is a movie that's stayed with me my whole life because of how easily and well it conveys its moral.