Mr. Deeds Review
by Eugene Novikov (eugenen AT wharton DOT upenn DOT edu)August 1st, 2002
Mr. Deeds (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
Starring Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder, John Turturro, Peter Gallagher, Jared Harris, Allen Covert.
Directed by Steven Brill.
Rated R.
"For goodness' sake, let's eat some cake."
Adam Sandler is not funny. Nothing he does is funny. His movies, with a couple exceptions, aren't funny. It is little consolation to those of us stuck watching his latest debacle, Mr. Deeds, that the filmmakers have realized this, and that as a result the few laughs that can be garnered here are the result of a more-florid-than-usual supporting cast. The fact that this is a remake of a Frank Capra classic is disturbing on two levels: one, that Sandler and Co. can no longer come up with their own schtick, no matter how dire, and two, that they have set to desecrating other people's material.
Sandler has somehow managed to connect with modern audiences -- mainly youth -- in a big way. His brand of comedy consists of punching people, or finding other ways to cause them displeasure, and then acting nonchalant about it. His characters are mostly -- nay, entirely -- clueless nice guys who dispatch villains by getting everyone on their side, most of the time remaining blissfully unaware of the actual situation. They're violent, but they have heart, you see.
Deeds is no different. He's a popular resident of a sleepy, nowhere New Hampshire small town. He owns a restaurant and spends his spare time writing greeting card slogans hoping to sell them to Hallmark. He also happens to have an absurdly wealthy uncle who dies, leaving him with some $40 billion and control of his corporate empire. Chuck Cedar (Peter Gallagher) is the villain -- we know this by the slicked hair and moustache -- who tries to do something I didn't find at all unreasonable: buy Deeds' share of the company, let him go back to New Hampshire with his $40 billion, and retain control of the conglomerate.
Then it turns out that Chuck actually wants to profit by breaking up the company, ostensibly costing thousands of people their jobs, at which point, as others have pointed out, we are essentially rooting for the survival of an AOL TimeWarner. Meanwhile, a tabloid journalist named Babe (hot-hands Winona Ryder) attempts to get her big break by posing as virgin school nurse Pam Dawson and getting Deeds to fall in love with her. I need not tell you the exact sequence of scenes to which this is obliged to lead.
What can I tell you about a movie in which Al Sharpton, playing himself, has the best line? I laughed a couple of times, smiled a few more, though never at anything directly involving Sandler. I liked John Turturro as Deeds' "sneaky" butler; he provides the only moments in Mr. Deeds that can be classified as "witty." Sandler himself does his same old act into the ground, breaking things, hitting people, being sweet and noble and narcissistic and tiresome. His scenes with Ryder are literally painful; we know exactly where their "romance" is going, and are awaiting with dread the scene in which Deeds learns of her masquerade.
Mr. Deeds' last fifteen minutes hit a new low in cloying and patronizing. You know that scene where the hero unexpectedly wins over a crowd of detractors, who boo at first, but then change their minds when he delivers an unexpectedly earnest monologue? Yep, we've got it. And how about the part where the villain is physically dragged out of the room, screaming some variation on "Foiled again!" Check. Then the two young lovers kiss and tell each other "I can't believe I ever doubted you." And the filmmakers don't even do us the courtesy of rolling the credits.
Attached to Mr. Deeds is the trailer for Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights, which looks like any number of previous Sandler movies, only animated. It seemed to get a big reaction from the audience, which consisted mainly of teenagers up past their bedtimes. Myself, I'm looking forward to Punchdrunk Love, in which auteur Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) tries his hand at directing the whirlwind of awfulness that is Adam Sandler.
Grade: D
Up Next: Lilo & Stitch
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