My friend Stacy and I went to see the movie “Click” yesterday and I think we were both pleasantly surprised. Not that we thought it was going to be a horrible film, mind you. If we had thought that, we never would have plunked down the money to see it. But from watching the previews, one gets the impression that it could have easily been a one-joke film. Roger Ebert gave the movie one and a half stars, and normally I agree with Ebert on most of his critiques, but he was way off on this one. His criticism was that this was supposed to be a comedy and it wasn’t really funny. From watching the previews – Sandler using the remote to pause his arrogant boss and slap him around a little, using the remote to cause a well-endowed woman to run in slow motion — you have to think the movie will be an all-out comedy. Maybe the studio was afraid of telling us that this wasn’t meant strictly for laughs like Happy Gilmore or Billy Madison. Maybe they thought that their core audience would stay away from the theaters this weekend. I don’t know. All I know is that the film turned out to be both amusing and very touching, and it’ll even bring a tear to your eye.

I saw “Spanglish”, which was a mediocre film and “Punch Drunk Love”, which was a magnificent film and both showed that Adam Sandler has good acting chops and can pull off a dramatic role. ”Click” shows that side even more. I think Sandler may be in an odd position right now. He’s in his mid-thirties, I think, and is outgrowing the slapstick silliness of Gilmore and the Waterboy, but doesn’t seem quite ready or confident that an audience will accept him as a dramatic actor. I think his next role is a drama about 9/11 with Don Cheadle. You can’t go wrong acting with Don Cheadle. Sooner or later, though, Sandler is probably going to have to make a choice — fade away or continue to reinvent himself and hope that the crowd follows. He may never become a Tom Hanks, but those of us who have been Sandler fans for this long and love that underlying angst and slight unpredictability don’t really want him to.