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Starring:
Adam Sandler
Winona Ryder
Directed by:
Steven Brill
Running Time: 96 minutes
Overall Crave Factor
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Okay, Adam Sandler is no Gary Cooper.
Okay, Adam Sandler is someone who has become rich by acting like a
five year-old. So what? He’s still funny. And his movies may be stupid
and infantile, but they are always good-natured and thoughtful. Like a
Hallmark card. Go figure, then, that in this film Sandler plays a guy
whose big dream is to write greeting cards.
This is THE WEDDING SINGER Sandler, BIG DADDY Sandler. As a
small-town guy with a huge heart and unruly fists. There are problems
– as with any Sandler film – they aren’t always cohesive, sometimes
they veer off into Fantasy Island airspace, and sometimes they are too
ridiculous for their own good. However, if you want to sit back and
laugh in a nice cool theatre, skip MIB 2 and go see MR. DEEDS.
Sandler plays Longfellow Deeds, small town Pizza entrepreneur who
treats everyone in town as if they were his family. Deeds inherits $40
Billion from an uncle he didn’t know he had, and he is whisked off to
the Big Apple for a week. While in NYC, he spreads his hometown
philosophy by hugging everyone, giving expensive art to the homeless
and repeatedly hammering sense into pretentious New York socialites
that dare to offend his new lady friend. The lady friend turns out to
be a tabloid reporter out to catch him at his worst, but even she
falls for his all-American good-guy routine.
Winona Ryder is obviously rusty, and has the depth and emotional
range of a kids show puppet, but the usual Sandler cohorts liven
things up more than enough. Allen Covert plays a creepy stalker
coworker of Ryders. Peter Dante plays the hometown village idiot, and
Buscemi is in full-on freak-mode as a slightly demented loner with
Marty Feldman style walleyes. John Turturro gives a hilarious turn as
Deeds’ new manservant, Emilio, who has a foot fetish and is “veddy
veddy sneaky”, and Peter Gallagher gives a good performance as a slimy
Corporate greedmonger.
The jokes are standard Sandler fare – injury, bodily functions, bad
wigs and Steve Buscemi. They aren’t for everyone, but if you enjoy the
Sand man – you’ll love it. Sandler leaves behind the high concept
schlock and effects laden goofiness of LITTLE NICKY and gets back to
what he does best – act goofy and cause mayhem. On top of that he lays
in the extra dimension of being a truly good and respectable person,
which you don’t see very much in leading men today. Sandler puts his
heart on his sleeve and tries to tell us that it’s okay to love your
Grandma, hug your friends and write cheesy poetry to your girl. We are
all geeks at heart – and Sandler will one day be our King. |
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