Publicity DVD poster for Click (© Frank Coraci/Adam Sandler/Columbia Pictures/Revolution Studios/Happy Madison Productions/Original Film/Sony Pictures Releasing – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
On 9 November 2023, my movie watch was Adam Sandler's sci fi/fantasy comedy movie Click – named after the sound made by the remote-control handset at the centre of this movie's plot.
Directed by Frank Coraci, co-produced by Adam Sandler, and released in 2006 by Sony Pictures, Click has as its lead character a 30-something architect named Michael Newman (played by Sandler), whose ever-demanding boss John Ammer (David Hasselhof) means that Michael spends far more time working and far less time enjoying family life with his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and their two small children Ben and Samantha than he (and they) would like.
As a result, Michael is so stressed by their opposing demands upon him that he often finds even the simplest tasks onerous and confusing, such as selecting the correct remote-control handset to operate a specific electronic device at home.
One day, deciding to purchase a universal remote-control handset that will operate any device and thus eliminate at least one source of hassle from his life, Michael finds himself in the far reaches of a department store where he meets a strange, mysterious employee named Morty, or Mort for short (Christopher Walken). SPOILER ALERT – even if you have only the most basic knowledge of Latin, that latter character's name may well give you an inkling of where this storyline is ultimately heading…
Anyway, Morty offers Michael a newly-developed universal remote handset, so new in fact that it has yet to go on sale and doesn't even have a serial number, but saying that as good guys like him need a break sometimes, he can have this one free of charge – as long as he understands that he can never return it.
When Michael arrives back home, he soon discovers to his amazement that the handset does far more than control his TV, open and close the garage door, operate his kids' electronic toys, freeze-frame, rewind and fast-forward his media player, etc. Yes indeed, for this extraordinary handset can freeze-frame, rewind, and fast-forward time itself! Or to put it another way, his universal remote-control handset can actually remote-control the universe!
Consequently, Michael uses it initially to freeze-frame the world around him for a while and thereby provide him with extra time to work on his projects. He also uses it to skip back in time to rewatch a fondly-remembered incident in his past, and even fast-forward his life to some long-awaited occurrence in the future.
But just as all of this seems too good to be true, Michael becomes alarmed to find out that it really is too good to be true. To begin with, the handset swiftly learns Michael's preferences, and starts performing them without him even pressing any buttons, thereby pitching him into all manner of unexpected and often highly embarrassing, comical situations.
Far worse, however, as Michael also discovers, is that when he fast-forwards his life using the handset, not only can he not rewind back to his original starting point, but in addition the handset starts fast-forwarding him automatically, of its own accord, at the slightest hint that he is anticipating some future event. Once again, it has learnt to sense his hopes and aspirations, and duly acts upon them by propelling Michael forward in time to when those hopes and aspirations become realities in his life, but without giving Michael the option of stopping it from doing so.
Michael swiftly realises to his horror that a major outcome of these handset-induced fast-forwardings through time is that he has skipped several entire years of his life, thereby missing out upon directly experiencing countless precious events that have occurred during those intervening years, such as watching Ben and Samantha grow up, loving Donna, etc.
It should be noted here that in the lives of his family, lived at a normal pace, Michael is still there, he doesn't vanish, but he is on what the handset's menu screen labels as 'auto-pilot' mode – i.e. he is physically present in their time, but is emotionally unattached, disinterested in everything – and everyone – around him. Sure, he achieves success at work, fast-forwarding instantly to promotions that would have taken him years to attain in the normal pace of his life, but he ages accordingly when doing so. Moreover, Donna's increasing frustration and perplexity with her auto-pilot husband at home eventually results in her divorcing him and marrying Bill (Sean Astin), Ben's swimming coach, instead.
Desperate to be free from the accursed handset's control, Michael attempts to dispose of it by several different means, but it always returns to him – and when he telephones Morty, who has an uncanny knack of always being close by at such times, Mort reminds him that it cannot ever be returned.
Finally, when Michael is standing in a shocked, greatly saddened state at the grave of his beloved father Ted (Henry Winkler), whose death had occurred during one of his fast-forwardings, so that he had been wholly unaware of it until informed by his now grown-up children, Morty once again appears from nowhere and reveals his true identity to Michael – Morty is the Angel of Death. (Remember my earlier reference to a basic knowledge of Latin offering a major clue to the true nature of Morty? 'Well, here it is – 'mors' and its derivative 'mort' are Latin for death.)
Michael is horrified, and swiftly instructs the handset to take him to a happy place – whereupon he finds himself at Ben's wedding. But when Ben tells him that he has cancelled his honeymoon in order to fit in more work – he is now an architect too – Michael realises that Ben is travelling down the same ill-fated path that he journeyed, putting work before his family, so he pleads with his son not to do so.
However, the stress of telling Ben is too much and Michael dies, surrounded by his grieving family – until he opens his eyes and finds that everything has been a dream, or rather a nightmare, and that he is still young, happily married to Donna, with Ben and Samantha still two small children, and his father Ted still very much alive and well. Or was it more than just a dream?
For soon afterwards, Michael discovers on a counter at home that very same futuristic remote-control handset! Next to it is a short handwritten note, which says that good guys need a break. The note is signed by Morty, so the Angel of Death is apparently giving Michael a second chance, a chance to redeem himself – but will he take it?
Michael smiles, picks up the handset, stands thinking for a moment, then walks over to a waste bin and drops the handset into it – and this time, it stays there. He then joins his family to have some fun time with them, unencumbered by work or the handset.
As you can tell from the basic plot summary presented by me above (the movie also contains a fair few additional subplots and extra incidents not mentioned by me here), Click is very much a morality tale, warning of the evils awaiting anyone who puts work before their family. Indeed, in some places it is positively Scroogian, with Michael falling only a little short of uttering Ebenezer's infamous "Bah! Humbug!" exclamation at times, and with the handset and Morty serving jointly as veritable Ghosts of Michael's Past and Future in order to show him the horrors that Fate has in store if he doesn't mend his ways!
Yet whereas Scrooge was very much the engineer of his own miserable fate, much of Michael's work-related misfortune stems not from himself directly but rather from his unsympathetic, selfish boss who has pressurized him into taking on more and more work, to the detriment of his family life. Due to this, together with Sandler's sympathetic performance as Michael, viewers feel much more empathy with him than anyone ever could, or would, for Scrooge. In addition, as my plot summary above readily reveals, Click also recalls elements of the classic 1946 "what if"-themed supernatural movie It’s A Wonderful Life.
Although Click definitely has much to smile and laugh over (including a hilarious turn by Jennifer Coolidge as Donna's sex-crazed best friend Janine), and features a few comedy set pieces of the gross-out variety too, it also has some seriously dark, melancholic content, and is definitely the darkest Adam Sandler movie that I have so far seen (and I've seen several). Nevertheless, it is eminently watchable throughout, and it's always good to see a good guy successfully surmout his life's obstacles to achieve the happiness that he deserves. So, yes, I enjoyed Click, and was also much more moved by it than I had expected to be.
If you'd like to watch an official Click trailer on YouTube, please click here and see for yourself the havoc that may ensue if a remote-control goes out of control!
Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
One day, deciding to purchase a universal remote-control handset that will operate any device and thus eliminate at least one source of hassle from his life, Michael finds himself in the far reaches of a department store where he meets a strange, mysterious employee named Morty, or Mort for short (Christopher Walken). SPOILER ALERT – even if you have only the most basic knowledge of Latin, that latter character's name may well give you an inkling of where this storyline is ultimately heading…
Anyway, Morty offers Michael a newly-developed universal remote handset, so new in fact that it has yet to go on sale and doesn't even have a serial number, but saying that as good guys like him need a break sometimes, he can have this one free of charge – as long as he understands that he can never return it.
When Michael arrives back home, he soon discovers to his amazement that the handset does far more than control his TV, open and close the garage door, operate his kids' electronic toys, freeze-frame, rewind and fast-forward his media player, etc. Yes indeed, for this extraordinary handset can freeze-frame, rewind, and fast-forward time itself! Or to put it another way, his universal remote-control handset can actually remote-control the universe!
Consequently, Michael uses it initially to freeze-frame the world around him for a while and thereby provide him with extra time to work on his projects. He also uses it to skip back in time to rewatch a fondly-remembered incident in his past, and even fast-forward his life to some long-awaited occurrence in the future.
But just as all of this seems too good to be true, Michael becomes alarmed to find out that it really is too good to be true. To begin with, the handset swiftly learns Michael's preferences, and starts performing them without him even pressing any buttons, thereby pitching him into all manner of unexpected and often highly embarrassing, comical situations.
Far worse, however, as Michael also discovers, is that when he fast-forwards his life using the handset, not only can he not rewind back to his original starting point, but in addition the handset starts fast-forwarding him automatically, of its own accord, at the slightest hint that he is anticipating some future event. Once again, it has learnt to sense his hopes and aspirations, and duly acts upon them by propelling Michael forward in time to when those hopes and aspirations become realities in his life, but without giving Michael the option of stopping it from doing so.
Michael swiftly realises to his horror that a major outcome of these handset-induced fast-forwardings through time is that he has skipped several entire years of his life, thereby missing out upon directly experiencing countless precious events that have occurred during those intervening years, such as watching Ben and Samantha grow up, loving Donna, etc.
It should be noted here that in the lives of his family, lived at a normal pace, Michael is still there, he doesn't vanish, but he is on what the handset's menu screen labels as 'auto-pilot' mode – i.e. he is physically present in their time, but is emotionally unattached, disinterested in everything – and everyone – around him. Sure, he achieves success at work, fast-forwarding instantly to promotions that would have taken him years to attain in the normal pace of his life, but he ages accordingly when doing so. Moreover, Donna's increasing frustration and perplexity with her auto-pilot husband at home eventually results in her divorcing him and marrying Bill (Sean Astin), Ben's swimming coach, instead.
Desperate to be free from the accursed handset's control, Michael attempts to dispose of it by several different means, but it always returns to him – and when he telephones Morty, who has an uncanny knack of always being close by at such times, Mort reminds him that it cannot ever be returned.
Finally, when Michael is standing in a shocked, greatly saddened state at the grave of his beloved father Ted (Henry Winkler), whose death had occurred during one of his fast-forwardings, so that he had been wholly unaware of it until informed by his now grown-up children, Morty once again appears from nowhere and reveals his true identity to Michael – Morty is the Angel of Death. (Remember my earlier reference to a basic knowledge of Latin offering a major clue to the true nature of Morty? 'Well, here it is – 'mors' and its derivative 'mort' are Latin for death.)
Michael is horrified, and swiftly instructs the handset to take him to a happy place – whereupon he finds himself at Ben's wedding. But when Ben tells him that he has cancelled his honeymoon in order to fit in more work – he is now an architect too – Michael realises that Ben is travelling down the same ill-fated path that he journeyed, putting work before his family, so he pleads with his son not to do so.
However, the stress of telling Ben is too much and Michael dies, surrounded by his grieving family – until he opens his eyes and finds that everything has been a dream, or rather a nightmare, and that he is still young, happily married to Donna, with Ben and Samantha still two small children, and his father Ted still very much alive and well. Or was it more than just a dream?
For soon afterwards, Michael discovers on a counter at home that very same futuristic remote-control handset! Next to it is a short handwritten note, which says that good guys need a break. The note is signed by Morty, so the Angel of Death is apparently giving Michael a second chance, a chance to redeem himself – but will he take it?
Michael smiles, picks up the handset, stands thinking for a moment, then walks over to a waste bin and drops the handset into it – and this time, it stays there. He then joins his family to have some fun time with them, unencumbered by work or the handset.
As you can tell from the basic plot summary presented by me above (the movie also contains a fair few additional subplots and extra incidents not mentioned by me here), Click is very much a morality tale, warning of the evils awaiting anyone who puts work before their family. Indeed, in some places it is positively Scroogian, with Michael falling only a little short of uttering Ebenezer's infamous "Bah! Humbug!" exclamation at times, and with the handset and Morty serving jointly as veritable Ghosts of Michael's Past and Future in order to show him the horrors that Fate has in store if he doesn't mend his ways!
Yet whereas Scrooge was very much the engineer of his own miserable fate, much of Michael's work-related misfortune stems not from himself directly but rather from his unsympathetic, selfish boss who has pressurized him into taking on more and more work, to the detriment of his family life. Due to this, together with Sandler's sympathetic performance as Michael, viewers feel much more empathy with him than anyone ever could, or would, for Scrooge. In addition, as my plot summary above readily reveals, Click also recalls elements of the classic 1946 "what if"-themed supernatural movie It’s A Wonderful Life.
Although Click definitely has much to smile and laugh over (including a hilarious turn by Jennifer Coolidge as Donna's sex-crazed best friend Janine), and features a few comedy set pieces of the gross-out variety too, it also has some seriously dark, melancholic content, and is definitely the darkest Adam Sandler movie that I have so far seen (and I've seen several). Nevertheless, it is eminently watchable throughout, and it's always good to see a good guy successfully surmout his life's obstacles to achieve the happiness that he deserves. So, yes, I enjoyed Click, and was also much more moved by it than I had expected to be.
If you'd like to watch an official Click trailer on YouTube, please click here and see for yourself the havoc that may ensue if a remote-control goes out of control!
Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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