Some Good Moments Hurt By Slapstick and Confusion

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2008)

Click has a very interesting premise. Adam Sandler plays an overworked architect, who wants to devote time to his wife and family, but his work constantly stresses him out. While shopping at a store one night for a "Universal Remote" that will simplify his life, he meets a very strange salesmen who shows him the ultimate in high-tech gadgets, a universal remote that controls his world. He can pause, rewind, and fast-forward events in his life and observe how he reacts to them. Adam's character thinks this is great. At first the remote gives him rewarding information. For example, he can skip bad events in his life and fast-forward to good things. However, it is not long before the remote is giving him information that he does not want to see or hear, leading to some very unpleasant and uncomfortable situations that involve his wife, kids, friends, co-workers, and supervisors.
Click sort of plays like a George Orwell "Big Brother is Watching You" novel, raising unique moral and ethical issues concerning not only how dependent our society has become accustomed to universal technology, but how that technology can be used where too much conveyance can hurt our relationships with family, the environment, and affect our health.
Many scenes in the movie demonstrate the above issues. The problem is that they don't do so in a very sequential or logical manner. A big downside of the film is the interjecting of Adam Sandler's slapstick humor. One gross scene has him farting in a manager's face. There are on-going Junior-High School mentality jokes and comments about his wives' and his sex-obsessed dog. These scenes were stupid and totally unnecessary.
Click also tries to bit off more than it can chew. It can not decide if it wants to be taken as a serious drama, sensitive comedy, or ludicrous slapstick. Adam's character, "Michael's" work, life, and family events with the remote, is so disjointed and disarrayed that while the viewer is left with some good ideas about how a character might react to advanced technology, the execution of events is weak in too many scenes. So much continuity is lost. What could have been a good film, is reduced to average.
Even on an emotional level, Adam Sandler is too much of a screwball for the viewer to care about what happens to him. The slapstick comedy, seemingly inserted into the movie solely because of him, is annoying and disgusting. The serious tones of the film are forced and unnatural because Adam does not do serious drama well at all.
Click should have had a more dramatic actor in its lead role, an easier to follow script, and taken the slapstick out completely. Had these elements been followed by the writers and producers, this movie would have been so much better!