Big Daddy Review
by James Sanford (jamessanford AT earthlink DOT net)July 24th, 1999
Before I published my favorable review of Adam Sandler's "The Waterboy" last fall, I should have heeded the warning Sandler used as the title for one of his CDs -- "They're All Gonna Laugh At You." And most of my friends and co-workers did exactly that, dismissing "Waterboy" sight unseen as one more piece of garbage foisted upon the screen, sometimes while adding comments such as "Now, 'There's Something About Mary,' that was a real comedy," or "I'd rather see 'Babe: Pig in the City'; I've heard that's just phenomenal."
O.K., "The Waterboy" was not a work of art. But it never purported to be. (And I would rather sit through "Waterboy" 20 times in a row than have to endure "Pig in the City" even one more time.)
Its sole purpose was to provide 90 minutes worth of jokes, which it did. And, more often than not, Sandler and co-stars Kathy Bates and Fairuza Balk hit the target, at least as frequently as Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller and Matt Dillon did in "Mary."
"Big Daddy," Sandler's follow-up, is slightly more ambitious and, unfortunately, much less successful.
Many comedians, at one point or another in their careers, become obsessed with proving they can do something other than tickle the funnybone. Often this leads to artistic disaster -- ever see Bill Murray's shudder-inducing attempt at "The Razor's Edge"? -- in which case the joke's on them. The best and worst that can be said about "Daddy" is that it probably won't do any permanent damage to the careers of anyone associated with it.
Sandler plays Sonny Koufax, a New Yorker who is living large off a big insurance settlement, much to the dismay of his girlfriend and dad, both of whom argue that it's time for the thirtysomething Sonny to embrace maturity. An opportunity to do just that literally knocks on the door when Sonny is presented with Julian (Cole and Dylan Sprouse), the five-year-old product of his best friend Kevin's (Jon Stewart) one-night-stand back in 1993. With Kevin conveniently in China for an extended stay, Sonny seizes the chance to masquerade as his buddy and adopt Julian, whose mother has conveniently died of a terminal illness. If you're wondering why Social Services would start drawing up adoption papers without so much as even asking for ID, or why a dying woman would send her son to live with a dad he's never even met, remember that looking for logic in an Adam Sandler movie makes about as much sense as shopping for a tuxedo in Victoria's Secret.
Sonny's attempts at parenting are occassionally funny -- he has a multitude of uses for newspaper, for example -- and the bond between child and child-man is believable. What kindergartner wouldn't be enamored of a father figure who plays along when the kid puts on sunglasses he believes make him invisible and whose idea of discipline is to murmur "go to your room, or do whatever you want"? Sandler and the Sprouse twins click together, which means that even when the gags fizzle, the scenes don't collapse.
But when "Daddy" dips into sentiment, it loses its balance. Director Dennis Dugan ("Problem Child," "Happy Gilmore") doesn't seem to know if he wants to parody "Kramer vs. Kramer" or remake it, and the actors seem similarly lost. A climactic courtroom battle is neither credible nor uproarious, and the movie's cop-out ending is ridiculous even by Sandler standards.
The elements that make "Daddy" interesting are mostly on its edges. There's some pleasantly feisty verbal sparring between Kevin's fiancee Corinne (Leslie Mann) and Sonny over her past as a Hooters waitress, and a surprisingly tolerant atitude toward Sonny's gay friends who he accepts unquestioningly by noting "they just watch a different kind of porno." In another amusing bit, Sonny and potential new flame Layla (Joey Lauren Adams) realize they're meant for each other when it's discovered they share a mutual passion for the music of Styx; their first kiss is underscored by the swoony "The Best of Times."
There's always an element of danger whenever a performer tries to do something to broaden his or her audience and if "Daddy" is somewhat spotty, it's still an admirable attempt by Sandler at something a bit different. He can take some consolation in the fact that Robin Williams had to headline plenty of pictures much worse than this before getting to do "Dead Poets Society," "Awakenings" and "Good Will Hunting." Patience and practice inevitably pay off.
James Sanford
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
