Big Daddy

This film, more than any I have seen in a long while tries to wring out emotions. It tries its most valiantly to make the audience cry, to become attached to the characters and join them in shedding a tear or two. Does it work? Not in the least.

The movie actually does fairly well until the end when it falls apart. It drives through the first hour along with humor and even some humanity. This much shows that the script, while nothing spectacular, is decent. When emotion takes center stage in the last 20 minutes of the film, it becomes downright painful to watch.

I suppose its the director's fault. When the ending becomes such a shameless attempt at sentimentality it's usually the director's doing. Little does he know, however, is that for the audience to become emotionally attached to a couple characters, we have to learn who they are. We have to learn to know what they like, who they like, and learn why they make the decisions they do. Almost none of this is attempted, yet the ending still becomes an attempt to pull our heart strings.

The story follows one man who is trying to gain back his girlfriend's heart. She's left him because he has no direction. When a little kid claiming to be his best friend's son shows up at the door, "Daddy" sees an opportunity. He could show his commitment by offering to adopt the child. Great idea. Not only is his character one of the worst parents ever to attempt such a thing in a Hollywood film, his attempts to be compassionate (things that are meant to be compassionate in the script) are laughable. Adam Sandler might make one of the worst fathers in Hollywood.

There are rules in Hollywood. One of them is to never have Adam Sandler cry. Before Jim Carrey dashed all critics expectations with The Truman Show, it was thought that he should leave the emotion to his butt like in Ace Ventura. Tom Cruise shouldn't shed a tear, but he did very convincingly in Eyes Wide Shut. Brad Pitt, pretty boy of Hollywood can, and he has very well in films like Seven. These situations work because they were in the hands of directors like Peter Weir, Stanley Kubrick, and David Fincher. Of course, Weir, Kubrick, and Fincher would never direct a film that is pointless drivel like Big Daddy.

Adam Sandler established himself as near comic genius with Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. While The Waterboy was perhaps one of the worst movies ever (and still made over 100 million dollars), I still respected him. And yes, I still somewhat respect him after this. The first step in Adam Sandler gaining respect would have to be for him to stop using his "funny" voices that he has used in every role that he's ever played. They're not "funny" anymore. Maybe he should just leave the dramatic stories entirely and take the opposite route that Jim Carrey did: leave the talking to his butt.

On a scale of 1 to 10 pee-pee walls: 3