Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Capone's been lining them up and knocking them down lately, and he's back today with a look at the new Adam Sandler film. No... not PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, goddammit. We've still got to wait for that one. For today, it's MR. DEEDS, and you'll be happy you get THAT much, you hear me?!?
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here.
The biggest problem with Adam Sandler’s latest film is that it’s not stupid enough. For years, Sandler bombarded up with silly films aimed at juveniles (or the juveniles in all of us). While he certainly never cast himself as the object of disdain in these films, he often danced along the fine line between likeable and totally annoying. And that was a good line to dance on because it made him a zillionaire. These films were never artistic achievements, but they made me laugh more often than not (and I’ll go toe-to-toe with anyone that THE WEDDING SINGER borders on being great). But lately Sandler’s been slipping into what I’ll call “Jim Carrey mode.” He doesn’t want to be laughed at any longer; he wants us to LOVE him. Jim Carrey made the very Capra-esque THE MAJESTIC, which suffocated on its own sentimentality. Sandler goes the extra step by actually remaking the wonderful 1936 Capra film MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN with Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. And while this new version is far from terrible, it made me long for the days when Sandler used to give and receive and ass-beating to/from Bob Barker for laughs.
Sandler plays Longfellow Deeds, a pizzeria owner is small-town New Hampshire (movie from Vermont in the Capra version), who turns out to be the sole inheritor of a multi-billion-dollar media empire. The company big shots (led by Peter Gallagher) fly Deeds to New York City to prepare paperwork for him to sign over control of his stocks to them. Little does Deeds know that these overt weasels want to gut the company and put tens of thousands of employees out of work. Deeds isn’t supposed to be stupid, just naive, and he puts a great deal of trust into the hands of Winona Ryder (who doesn’t know that’s a huge mistake?), who plays Babe, an investigative reporters for a tabloid T.V. show trying to secretly discover the man behind the man as she poses as an innocent Iowa-born school nurse named Pam Dawson. Deeds falls head over heals for her, but it’s only a matter of time before he finds out the truth about Pam. Now you tell me, if Adam Sandler is playing the nicest, sweetest guy in the world, do you think he’ll forgive Pam/Babe for her deception? Exactly.
Whereas Sandler usually holds the reigns of comedy king in his films, the biggest laughs in MR. DEEDS come from the supporting players. Jared Harris is amusing as the Murdoch-ian host (complete with Australian accent) of Babe’s trash television news show; Steve Buscemi is just whacked out of his mind as “Crazy Eyes,” a regular stop on Sandler’s pizza delivery route. If you’ve ever wondered how freaky Buscemi’s bug eyes can get, you must see this film. But the true scene stealer is John Turturro as Deeds’ “sneaky” Spanish valet, Emilio. Every second Turturro is on screen, I was laughing my nuts off. I don’t want to steal any of his thunder by describing great Turturro scenes, but trust me: the reason I’m glad I saw MR. DEEDS is Turturro.
LITTLE NICKY director Steven Brill has a bit more confidence with his comedy here, but since NICKY was two armloads full of unfunny that’s not saying much. My biggest disappointment was with Sandler himself. We already like him walking into this movie; he didn’t have to try so heard to win us over. He looks and seems out of his element here, and this is never more evident than during the climactic scene when he tries to talk his company’s investors into not dismembering the company. Deeds gives about the least rousing or convincing speech I’ve ever heard. (Thankfully Turturro gets his final moment in the sun at this point and saves the day.) And what about Winona? Frankly this role could have been played by any number of troubled actresses. I won’t blame her abilities as an actress on her lackluster performance; the part is assembly line Girlfriend stuff and there just isn’t much for her to do than bat her eyes and react to Sandler. MR. DEEDS avoids being a major disappointment thanks to some strong supporting players, but Sandler fans may feel ripped off as Adam strives harder and harder to be accepted by Middle America.
Capone
I once kicked the shit out of Wink Martindale on a driving range, but that’s a story that three lawsuits and the humiliation of being ultimately whupped by a man named “Wink” precludes me from telling!!
We also got this take on the film in from a spy I’m not familiar with. Arrived just as I was about to post this, so I decided to go ahead and include it here for you:
Harry, Father Geek, and/or Moriarty,
We had a Fourth World screening of Adam Sandler's latest "Mr. Deeds" last night. Just to set the record straight, I am a die hard fan of Kubrick, Kurosawa, Lean, Hitchcock, and any other director I can name that makes me sound intelligent. Adam Sandler has always been very hit and miss for me. Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore both are guilty pleasures, quoted constantly amongst our softball team (Da Bears - Denmark's Favortie Slow Pitch Softball Team - est. 1991 when 'Da Bears' was a relevant name). Shooter McGavin kicks ass. Big Daddy was a decent movie but I couldn't bring myself to see Little Nicky.
Mr. Deeds definitely falls into the Big Daddy category. Adam Sandler is no longer the obnoxious a-hole out to redeem himself like Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore. Longfellow Deeds is everyone's friend and protector, naive and friendly. When the head of Blake Enterprises freezes to death on Mt. Everest, he leaves no will, so his $40 billion estate goes to his only living relative, the owner and proprietor of Deeds Pizza in Mandrake Falls, New Hampshire. Deeds (he hates being called Mr. Deeds or Longfellow) owns the local landmark and is also an aspiring writer of greeting cards. And for some reason, everyone always wants to hear his writing, which are always the most forced jokes in the movie. Peter Gallagher plays the same role that Bradley Whitford played in Billy Madison and tries to manipulate Deeds so he can take the company from him and break it up so all the evil stock holders can make a quick buck. John Turturo plays Emilio, Mr. Blake's long time butler, now working for Deeds. He does the best he can with the role and gets a number of laughs, mainly because of his sneakiness, always popping up when you don't expect it. The isn't The Jesus, but it gets a few laughs. Enter Winona Ryder as a ruthless producer for 'Inside Access' a tabloid TV show. She pretends to get mugged in front of Deeds, but instead of helping her up, he chases the mugger (her coworker in disguise) and beats the utter crap out of the guy. He and Winona hit it off, and GUESS WHAT? She starts to truly fall in love for him! I sure didn't see that coming! And a moral dilemma ensues.
But let's be honest. No one goes to and Adam Sandler movies for their intricate plots. The talkbackers can figure out exactly what happens next. So I just wasted fifteen minutes, didn't I? So is Mr. Deeds funny? Yes. It has its moments. The greeting card stuff is never funny. Mr. Sandler's (see, if I call him Mr. Sandler, then I sound like I am a real reviewer, right?) funny moments are few and far between. They mostly come from how he deals with a spoiled brat of a quarterback for the New York Jets (he finds out he owns the team) and with a group of high society types that see him as a small town hick. For being such a nice guy, Deeds can sure get violent, Gilmore-style. The laughs tend to come from the supporting cast. The usual suspects from the past few Adam Sandler movies get their jokes in. Steve Buscemi gets some laughs as a Mandrake Falls resident named Crazy Eyes ("Time heals all wounds, Deeds, except these crazy eyes."). There are a couple cameos, from John Macenroe (who has one of the most confusing moments when he does a Crouching Tiger jump when almost being hit by a car) and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Over all, some jokes work, others don't. I laughed out loud a few times, and other times the jokes fell real, real flat.
The other problem is that they do try to work in a dramatic side. Winona Ryder gets to do a lot of crying, and she does a decent job of providing the moral dilemma side of the story. But for the most part, the drama serves to make Deeds look like the greatest guy in the world. In one amazingly awkward scene, Deeds climbs three stories to help save a lady in a burning building. But she won't leave without her cats, all seven of them. This scene never works. But it is necessary so that the secret video Winona Ryder is shooting can be edited to make it look like Deeds was throwing cats out of a window and trying to rape the woman. And then there's the final moment when Deeds has to give a passionate speech to convince the stockholders to not break up the company. It just never works.
I always used to wonder what Siskel and Ebert meant when they called a movie "uneven." I think this is it. Mr. Deeds seems to want to be a real sentimental, almost sweet comedy, but then they throw in the typical Adam Sandler random joke moments. It's funny, but you won't be quoting it with your friends. It's practically disposable. The rest of the theatre seemed to laugh more than we did, so you can take that for what you will. I don't want to accuse Adam Sandler of needing to stroke his ego, but I miss when he was a complete schmuck in a movie, but those don't make the kind of money that him playing the most likable guy in the world will. (That's not a run-on sentence, is it?) I do still like Adam Sandler, and I am very interested to see Punchdrunk Love, but I wonder how that will sit with his fans. I know many people who hated the Royal Tennenbaums because they saw Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson and thought they were getting Meet the Parents or Zoolander. Should be interesting. At least more than Mr. Deeds.
Signing off from Borovnia,
-Diello
Thanks, guys. I’m seeing this one next week, I think, and I’ll be sure to weigh in then, since there’s nothing that demands thorough critical dissection quite like an Adam Sandler movie.
"Moriarty" out.
