A dumbed-down Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Rating: 3/10 (1 October 2006)

Imagine you are a family-father trying to juggle a demanding career as an architect, a vile boss and your needy wife and kids at the same time. Then imagine a brainy scientist presents you with a universal remote control that can not only control all the apparatus in your home, but in your life. When the chance is given to be able to fast-forward, skip chapters, pause and alter the volume of passages of your life  would you take it? Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is faced with this choice, and he takes it.
While the concept is highly intriguing  and the reason I set out to see "Click"  its execution makes me want to weep. Happy Madison Production has not carved out a good comedy since Happy Gilmore (1996) and this film cements the down-spiral of Adam Sandler's career. It seems as though it purposely fast-forwards and skips all moments with comedic potential and then tips over into an endless charade of fart-jokes and misplaced slap-stick to make up for it. Most of the jokes only managed a raised eyebrow from me, like the dog humping the stuffed animal (ha ha, 0/10 for originality). With performers such as the Hoff, Henry Winkler and Christopher Walken gracing the film's cast list in quirky supporting roles you'd think it would be difficult to disappoint on a comic level. But they do, because their characters are all one-dimensional  it is apparent that "Click" expects us to find their mere presence funny, which is plain lazy.
Less than halfway through, the film realizes how unfunny it is. It then shifts onto a drama path, navigating family values, morals and endless clichés. As Michael's life is spinning out of his control, he recognizes that happiness is in the moment  right here, right now with his family  and not in fast-forwarded promotions. Man, that's a smart movie. At this point it is so marred by formulaic elements that it becomes a Hallmark movie, desperately pulling at the collective heartstrings of the audience. But Michael is an unlikable hero and we do no sympathize with him, not even when he has fast-forwarded his life to when he is all grey-haired, lonely and broken.
Click's fatal flaw is that it cannot decide what it is. Is it a drama, is it a comedy? It melts both these genres together, but not in a believable way because it is neither touching nor funny  just a mish-mash of a a great concept, unfunny jokes and sentimentality. Had it put its heart into one of the genres and stuck with one approach, it would probably have been a good film. What's more is that its clumsy flat and shaky story does not hold up for two hours. The only highlights are its soundtrack and a hilarious small character by Sean Astin.
3 out of 10