Okay, here's the deal. I get gargantuan glee from seeing someone prove the naysayers wrong. Especially with the Hollywood machine. It's a biz that gleefully reports stars being "finished" only to have them pop up three months later as a box-office champion. I think my personal favorite was when the Academy decided, in its great wisdom, to give Paul Newman the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscar® ceremony one year. It's a great honor, I grant you, but for the most part, it's a trophy to signify accomplishments after that career is over. Key word there...after. Newman accepted the award and made a tidy speech. But he made an even better speech the very next year when he won the Best Actor Oscar for The Color of Money. I've never met Newman, but I like to think that Joanne Woodward, his wife, had to remind him not to just say, "Oh, yeah, by the way...kiss my whole entire butt, Academy!"
Think about it, guys. John Travolta was done. History. Then, he lets his hair grow long and shoots up heroin with Uma Thurman, and BOOM, he's back. Drew Barrymore? Six years ago, she was a Trivial Pursuit answer. Rehab, tabloids, a string of hits and, BOOM, she's a major player. Lord love her, Jessica Tandy was an aged afterthought in Hollywood until Ron Howard put her in Cocoon, and she promptly went from there to Driving Miss Daisy. BOOM! Oscar time! Eddie Murphy was "finished" after Vampire in Brooklyn. A fat-guy hit, a few talking animals, and, BOOM, once again he's centerstage.
And, now, everyone keeps salivating, just waiting for Adam Sandler to be finished...to fall on his face. Funny thing, though, he won't fall. His movies just keep getting better. Keep making more and more money. People say, "Well, he can't keep this up." They said that for Happy Gilmore. They said that for The Wedding Singer. They said that for The Waterboy. And they said it about Big Daddy, his latest movie. Wanna take a guess who's still standing, and grinning his sneakers off?
In Big Daddy, Sandler plays Sonny Koufax, a successful law school grad who's decided to spend his life in a tollbooth instead of a courtroom. He's a slob who slurps cereal, watches cartoons, and could care less about virtually everything the rest of society deems "successful." Then his girlfriend dumps him, and a little boy named Julian (played by Cole and Dylan Sprouse) shows up on his doorstep. Julian has a sad story, but the movie doesn't drive straight to Violinville. Instead, the focus goes to Koufax becoming Julian's caretaker, and what could be a serious-minded movie with some laughs turns into what it should be -- a high-gear comedy.
Sonny doesn't know beans about taking care of anyone; he can barely take care of himself. But, when he's forced to wing it as the guardian of a small child, he does what he knows. He teaches Julian the basics of life, like how to fold a pizza slice properly before scarfing it down. He instructs him on the mastery of a pro wrestling sleeper hold. And, of course, how to urinate in public. Sonny's idea of a nightlight is a neon "Live Nudes" sign in Julian's bedroom.
When a new woman, namely Layla (Joey Lauren Adams of Chasing Amy), steps into Sonny's life, we get to see the other side of Sonny, one that does have a heart, one that does care. And when the two sides blend, Sonny realizes what he should be doing with his life. Awwwwww.....
Before you say it, the answer is "no." I'm not getting tenderhearted. It just impresses me when an actor can play both sides of the ego, and blend them as well as Sandler does. And director Dennis Dugan (Beverly Hills Ninja) has the sense to let the big dog roam the yard. It helps that his supporting cast is every bit as good as Sandler is, most notably names like Rob Schneider, Steve Buscemi, and Jon Stewart (why is nobody finding a film project for this man? He is only the funniest comedian in the business right now.) Adams is a delight to watch, and even more so to hear (it's like Fran Drescher Lite... just enough to make you smile without making your ears bleed.) And my hat is off to the Sprouse boys, who teamed up to play little Julian. If only Jake "Skywalker" Lloyd had your chops.
But, after saying all that, I must be honest. This is Adam Sandler's movie. And Big Daddy works most of the time. There are some flat moments, and a few of the gags pull up lame, but if you don't have your sights set for some Albert Brooks intellectual smirking, you'll catch most everything with a laugh. Sandler's smooth-talker image, his loud, obnoxious image, they're all there, He gets warm and fuzzy like he did in The Wedding Singer, and he gets to rant like he did in Happy Gilmore. And, Sandler drives this thing home with the very basic image of Sandler himself having a good time. He always looks like he's just enjoying the absolute tar out of himself, and that, in and of itself, makes his movies fun to watch. No big Method approach, no complex character studies, he's just a guy having fun. Jump in and enjoy the ride.
People, I'll be the first to say that I had Sandler written off a while back. Billy Madison didn't really impress me much. But, starting with Happy Gilmore, we started Sandler evolve. We got the hapless "fourth Stooge" character, but gradually, he got a soul. He got heart. And, right now, that's what is making Sandler such a popular actor. He gives us the barking rotweiler, the goofy wiener dog, or the cuddly beagle. And, as long as he maintains that range, he can make movies forever. I hope he's strong-willed enough to resist the temptation of doing the "Real Actor" stuff, like Sandler doing Shakespeare, or horror of horrors, Sandler doing Scorsese. But right now, he's in full-blown righteous mode, and it's all working.
See Big Daddy. Brother Adam hasn't let us down yet, and doesn't seem like he's going to any time soon. See him before he does his version of Julius Caesar. Or worse, the remake of Taxi Driver...although, now that I think of it, that might be funny as hell.
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in for observation