Hand Me That Remote!
"Click" This One Off
By Jenny Peters

Does anyone out there want to see Adam Sandler emote in a family film? Well, that’s what you’re in for if you take the plunge with “Click,” a sappy retelling of the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” tale. This time, it is a remote control that gives Michael Newman (Sandler) the ability to see his whole life unfold before him. And although there are a series of crude doggy sex jokes thrown in to make it inappropriate for younger kids, the plot is otherwise a verbatim rip-off of “Wonderful Life.”

Sure, there are a few funny moments. They happen when Sandler works his undoubted comedic talents, but they are scattered moments thrown in amidst this cautionary story of what can happen to a man when his career—instead of his happy family, with pretty wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale, whose talents are wasted here) and kids Ben and Samantha—becomes his overriding concern.

We see Michael young, middle-aged and old, clicking faster and faster through the important moments of his life, all the while accompanied by his angel Morty, played with panache by a wild-haired Christopher Walken. His children grow up, his personal life crumbles, but he makes it to the very top of his profession as an architect.

Problem is, Sandler cannot believably carry the dramatic moments that are necessary to make a story like this work. Even when he is at the ostensibly deepest depths of despair, there is always the inherent feeling that he is suddenly going to crack a crass joke in some way. When he doesn’t, the film descends into a sentimental muck that really makes the idea of a using a clicker to fast-forward through the dreck appealing.

Speaking of funny moments, David Hasselhoff as Michael’s lascivious boss gives an inspired performance, and Jennifer Coolidge (as always) steals every scene she’s in as a needy single looking for love in all the wrong places. But neither one can save “Click” from making us squirm with the desire to get a hold of a remote and change the channel to a rerun of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

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