Click (2006) Film Review
Starring Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, Kate Beckinsale, David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler, Julie Kavner; Written by Steven Koren, Mark O’Keefe; Directed by Frank Coraci.
It would only seem appropriate that Adam Sandler, who has made a livelihood from being the prototypical everyday guy, would be the force behind a film about the furthermost important development for men — the remote control. However, Click isn’t about the everlasting struggle for who controls the all powerful remote. Instead, it’s all about the trouble Sandler can cause with this outwardly uncomplicated miniature gadget.
Sandler portrays Michael, a workaholic draughtsman who spends more time satisfying the notions of his difficult boss (David Hasselhoff) than he does with his wife and children. Michael calls off camping outings with his kids and rushes through love making sessions with his spouse Donna (Kate Beckinsale) just so he can inch nearer to that partnership he so badly desires. Michael is out of control on everything going on at home.
Michael’s kids recommend that a universal remote control will make his life less complex. Michael’s journey for minimalism lands him in an odd place: an outlandish shopping complex. In the store’s back room, referred to as the “way beyond”, Michael meets Morty (Christopher Walken), a quirky scientist on the cutting edge of imagination and technology. Morty gives Michael a space-like, radiant blue remote control. This remote does more than switches between sports and porn. It essentially controls life in the most capricious and peculiar ways. With the remote, Michael can modify his life in every way that you can imagine: He mutes the howling dog; he presses slow motion on the gigantic jogger, pauses a fight with Donna so he can rewind back to memorize “their song”; and he fast-forwards to his impending promotion.
Originally, Michael alters comparatively harmless features of his life with little significance. It’s these instants of Click that produce the most enjoyment. But eventually the remote takes absolute control, pushing Michael’s life (and the film as well) into autopilot. By some means, the remote remembers how Michael responded in various situations in the past and performs the same inclinations without giving him the chance to change course. As you can imagine, catastrophic consequences arise. It is at this time that Click becomes entirely out of control in a pointless endeavour to hold together its one joke. All of the humour is so over done that the fun is gone.
Ultimately, Click transforms into a devastatingly miserable adaptation of It’s a Wonderful Life as Michael revives the life he missed while on autopilot. Is the audience meant to express sympathy for Michael now that the tides have turned on him? He’s unquestionably no George Bailey. In effect, it’s hard to sympathize with a man who deliberately chooses to discard his beautiful family unit by way of a ridiculous remote control. Certainly Frank Capra would be rolling over in his grave at the worthless attention-grabber that’s needed to retell his classic story.
Individuals who prefer Sandler’s variety of humor will not be dissatisfied with Click, though his casting in the lead role is dubious. Are we really meant to believe that a man’s man like Sandler has no idea which remote controls what? It’s doubtful, but it really doesn’t matter anyway. Click’s seemingly thin story line affords Sandler more than enough opportunity to reprocess much of the same clowning around we’ve been exposed to in prior projects. Though Walken’s character is purely just a retread of Christopher Lloyd’s scientist in Back to the Future, he permeates all of the energy into this lacklustre film. The left over cast, together with Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner as Michael’s parents, is entirely wasted. You could even say that they’re literally clicked over.
