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Workaholic architect Michael
Newman (Adam Sandler) keeps breaking promises to his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsdale) and kids Benjamin and Samantha to spend more time with the family.
More inclined to please his egocentric boss, Mr. Ammer (David Hasselhoff)---who is in turn obsessed with pleasing Arab and Japanese clients---Michael is too busy to bother with family dinners, let alone camping with his children. When one day he discovers that he can't turn on the TV without turning on the ceiling fan or the garage door as well, Michael sets out to find a universal control in a local houseware shop called Bed, Bath and Beyond. IN the "beyond" section of the store he stumbles upon an inventor who gives him a remote that can control things way beyond TV and garage doors. All he needs to do is point and click and he gets to control nearly everything: lower the volume of the dog's barking, make people move in slow-mo, suspend life of party guests as he sneakily does a trick, make his family disappear so he can focus on his work, etc. However, the gadget's inventor, Morty (Christopher Walken) will only give it to Michael on one condition: that he may not return it. Once the remote is in his possession, Michael finds out that the point-and-click doodad has acquired a life of its own and in fact imposes its own will on him.
Comedian Adam Sandler seems to be outgrowing his nasty-vulgar-angry-boy-trapped-in-a-man's-body
mold as he takes on this "comedrama" character. Sandler fans will still be delighted by Click's
not-so-subtle approach to the story as evident in its crude humor, vulgar language and expressions, etc. These, plus other outrageous ingredients in Click like profanity, ethnic stereotyping, sexual sight gags among others are purposefully used to provide a contrasting background to Michael's conversion towards the end. The plot proved to be a challenge to the movie's editing—a challenge that is well hurdled as proven, for instance, by the scenes required by the fast-forward and fast-rewind of Michael's universal remote. Less meticulous editing of such scenes would have resulted in a great deal of confusion in the viewer.
The trailer of Click
tells only half the truth about the movie: that there's this guy who gets to own a devise that would allow him to play God, almost. The whole movie discloses the rest of the truth: that playing God doesn't pay. Michael is not a bad guy, but being trapped in the rat race for the world's choicest cheeses, he loses sight of his priorities and eventually loses his grip on life. He gets to possess an empowering high-tech gadget until it possesses him. Click is a like a docu-drama disguised in comedy's costumes. But despite that disguise, its lesson comes across unequivocally: it's never worth giving up family for career. Success should serve love, otherwise work is mere slavery. Ambition enslaves, and when one becomes a slave, his worldly success also becomes a one-way ticket to doom.
(Date Reviewed: 11 August 2006)
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