Today’s quick review: Click. No matter how hard he works, Mike Newman (Adam Sandler) doesn’t have the time to both impress his boss (David Hasselhoff) and pay attention to his family, including his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and their children (Joseph Castanon and Tatum McCann). But Mike gets a shot at having it all when Morty (Christopher Walken), a mysterious stranger, gives him a universal remote that can control the flow of his life.
Click is a fantasy comedy about a working father who receives a device that finally lets him balance his career and his home life. Click explores the ramifications of a truly universal remote, following Mike as he uses the device to pause, fastforward, and rewind the key moments of his life. What begins as a goofy comedy about a man exploiting his newfound power soon grows into a more meaningful story about what matters in life.
Click runs with its premise in a way that few other movies do. Mike spends the early part of the movie abusing the remote in every way possible, from skipping past predictable arguments to using the remote’s language settings to eavesdrop on his Japanese business partners. But Click soon goes even farther, showing the consequences of the remote on Mike’s work, life, and marriage as he comes to rely too much on its power.
The result is a unique hybrid: a generally silly comedy that has a backbone of meaningful speculation. Click never leaves behind its humorous roots, but it ventures into more serious territory that takes its premise to the next level. Click is not pristine or artfully constructed, but its blend of coarse humor and human themes manages to get the job done.
Many viewers will find Click a little too strange, either in terms of its humor or the farther leaps its story takes. But for those willing to take the movie on its own terms, Click is a humble yet moving story that combines breezy humor with deeper themes. Give it a shot when you are in the mood for a comedy that offers a little bit more.
For another comedy about a man gifted extraordinary powers, try Bruce Almighty. For a bittersweet drama about the course of a man’s life, try Stranger than Fiction. For a time travel comedy with even richer themes, try Groundhog Day. For a science fiction movie with a similarly retrospective tone, try Bicentennial Man. For a classic tale that deals with similar themes, try one of the adaptations of A Christmas Carol.
[6.4 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389860/). I give it a 7.0 for an original story drawn in broad but effective strokes.