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Baby formula >> Adam Sandler tries to grow up in Big Daddy
by DAVE DOUGLAS
What's a guy to do? If your life is a Hollywood comedy, your roommate's heretofore unknown love child Julian will knock on your door while he's away in China, and voilà--instant life purpose, you are now a father. As father figures go, few would immediately conjure up an image of Adam Sandler, but in his fifth comedy, Sandler attempts to play the big poppa. Cross the leisure lifestyle of Ozzie Nelson with the bumbling of Homer Simpson and you get the picture. Of course, this comedy being your standard Hollywood fare, Sonny's errant ways are soon altered by the love of his new lawyer girlfriend and his growing love for his faux adopted son. When faced with the inevitable custody battle for the boy, Sonny grows a heart that would make the Grinch proud. For many, Sandler's comedic talent is an acquired taste. But for fans of films like The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, the movie's first half offers vintage Sandler at his most outrageous. (Scenes in the movie's tell-all trailer draw heavily from this part of the film.) Laughs become a sparser commodity later in the film, though, as Sonny grows up (eventually becoming--you guessed it--yet another lawyer). Appearances by Steve Buscemi (as a homeless man) and SNL alumnus Rob Schneider (as an illiterate delivery boy) offer Sandler characters to play off, but their contributions here feel too sparse. In Big Daddy, Sandler wants to show us he can grow up. It's an earnest effort by an actor who clearly yearns to evolve; maybe when he reaches puberty his future scripts will hit more than one note.
Big Daddy opens Friday, June 25 |
Ever have one of those moments when your otherwise happy life suddenly seems empty? That's what happens to Sonny Koufax, Adam Sandler's character in Big Daddy. At first, he's a happy 32-year-old New Yorker who delights in playing the man-child, working as a toll booth attendant while all his friends follow their materialist law careers. Then he abruptly finds himself in one of those life-defining episodes, when his girlfriend breaks up with him just as his roommate announces he's engaged.