| By Fred Topel
In Theaters Now
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Click is surprising fans by showing an Adam Sandler more emotional than they’re used to. It’s not the first time he’s gotten serious, and I’m not just talking Punch Drunk Love and Spanglish. Here are the 10 most emotional moments in Adam Sandler’s previous work.
10. Punch Drunk Love – There’s that moment where he just starts crying out of the blue, but the real breakthrough in Punch Drunk is when he yells at his awful sister on the phone. It puts the trademark Sandler scream in a wholly realistic context.
9. The Waterboy – When Bobby Bouchet finally tells his mother about the medulla oblongata, he is confronting an entire childhood of lies. The whole mother-son relationship implodes and he is reborn a man. It’s almost Christ-like.
8. Spanglish – When he gets the news that his wife had an affair, is reaction is so calm and subtle, it’s the most real we’d ever seen Sandler. Just a wave of the hand and blank silence, trying to comprehend the destruction of his universe.
7. Bulletproof – When he since “I Will Always Love You” to Damon Wayans from the shower, you know he’s confessing his true feelings of appreciation.
6. 50 First Dates – Crying on the boat is just a joke, but when he makes the first tape for her, that shows such a true and creative effort to make a relationship work, and the fact that he keeps it going for the rest of their family life is awesome.
5. Big Daddy – When they’re taking the kid away from him and the kid is crying, Sandler has to keep telling him it’s not his fault, but the kid can’t possibly understand that.
4. Billy Madison – When the kid wets his pants and Billy makes it look like he too wet himself, making it cool for everyone, it is the first selfless act we’ve seen in a character who relishes a life of slacking.
3. Little Nicky – When Nicky has to send the bees after Henry Winkler to get back into hell, he’s so conflicted. You can see he doesn’t want to hurt Fonzie but it’s for the greater good of the universe.
2. The Wedding Singer – I’m sorry, but when he sang that song to her on the plane, I felt the cold, cynical crevice in my heart come back to life for a minute.
1. Click – The piece de resistance truly is Sandler’s death scene when he fast forwards to the end of his life. He becomes a desperate old man crying for the opportunities he missed along the way. |
