In my years running an entertainment website, I’ve had the chance to talk to many actors, musicians, and individuals from various fields that comprise what we all know as the “entertainment industry.”
However, there was this little-known actor by the name of Benjamin Arthur, whom I was interviewing for this short-lived series called “Working the Engels.” He said something that has stuck with me since then (the show aired in 2014, so that’s 11 years for those counting at home). “It takes a smart man to play an idiot,” those were his words. Something that, as I look into many of these actors known for playing idiots on screen, many have proven to be smarter than they appear. Damn! Just right now, while she falls more into the TV personality, Paris Hilton had us all fooled into believing she was an airhead bimbo, just for later finding out it was all a rouse.
The same, I think, can be said about Sandler. I don’t know him personally, but as you see -and we will throughout this piece-, he’s much more than the angry, loud, childish man many associate him with. In fact, as we would see, he has proven to be a capable actor even before the release of “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002).
It’s all a joke?
When discussing Adam Sandler’s beginnings in the dramatic field, everyone will point to “Punch-Drunk Love,” But something that caught my attention as I binge-watched all of Sandler’s movies was how this just didn’t happen all of a sudden. One looks at “Big Daddy” (1999), and you get a glimpse of the more serious Adam during certain scenes, namely those scenes in the court where he gets to express so much only by a stare. You truly believe he’s suffering for this loss of this young kid he has grown to love as his own. Sure, they get interrupted by all the silliness. In fact, many of his loud comedies feature such great moments where he gets serious and delivers some touching moments.
Case in point: “Click.”
Yes, the same film in which we see a dog banging an inflatable duck and Sandler uses his magic control to change the size and width of the Hassenholf also has this great scene in which Michael Newman is seeing all his life come to an end. There he is, lying on the floor as the loved ones wish for him not to die, “Linger” by The Cranberries plays in the background, his life, which he has wasted, seems to be fading away. And I don’t know, but that scene always moved me. The setup, the music, but also Sandler’s performance, again, some great “eye acting” as we can see a man fighting his guilt, deep in regret.
“50 First Dates” is another pretty good example. You got all the foolish humor with the seal, Schneider’s entire (racist) shtick, and the whole thing with the pineapple is silly, but when Adam is asked to be serious, he delivers. Most of this can be found in the video recordings and as his love for Barrymore’s character grows. This is a man who’s genuinely in love with this woman whose disability poses a challenge, but he’s willing to go to all extremes to gain her heart over and over again. The chemistry between Drew and Adam is top-notch (something they already proved in “The Wedding Singer”).
And those are just two examples that come to mind. I found it really interesting—and it’s not something I hear people talk about often. Maybe it’s because, aside from “50 First Dates,” these subtle moments tend to get lost in comedies that are otherwise loud, juvenile, over-the-top (but admittedly fun) comedies.
The Chill Effect
The idea of Sandler being a dramatic actor was something that no one ever saw coming, nor thought it was even inconceivable. Sure, like I mentioned in the last section, he had shown some less silly and reactionary behavior in films like “Big Daddy.” But coming off “Little Nicky,” in which there’s an argument to be made that its Adam at his most Adam Sandler aka loud and “crass” (?)- you can’t blame producer JoAnne Sellar when she was (according to the Wiki page) “befuddled” when Paul Thomas Anderson had a desire to cast the Sandman for his first film of the new millennium (fourth in total). In fact, he was apparently inspired by an SNL skit:
“I saw this Best of Adam Sandler DVD from Saturday Night Live, and an amazing thing happened. There’s this moment when he’s doing this talk show called The Denise Show, about his ex-girlfriend who’s left him, and his father calls up and says, “What are you doing; you’re embarrassing the family”. And Adam goes into this fit of rage, screaming at his father, and honest to God, I saw this moment where it appears as if the whites of his eyes turn black and they roll back in his head. It was like he just lost his mind. I would play it back, over and over again, and you can see him kinda snap back to reality. The audience is laughing, and it’s almost like he finally started to hear them laughing a few seconds later.”
Oh, and he allegedly became obsessed with Sandler when he saw “Big Daddy.” See, I’m not the only one who sees this as an underrated movie!
But I digress.
Anyways, “Punch-Drunk Love” proved to be a hit for everyone, with Sandman even getting nominated for a Golden Globe. And this also started a new chapter in his career and his persona. Sure, you have a few cameos and roles in which Adam yells, makes faces, and funny noises. But it appears PTA’s movie gave him more confidence to get out of his shell and act less like a cartoon and more like a human being. It’s what I like to call “The Chill Effect”.
He seemed more chill. Looser. He pulled the pedals down more often. There was also a lot of mumbling. Some were kind of depressed and/or repressed individuals. Sure, throughout this period that comprised the 00s, for every “Punch-Drunk Love”, “Funny People” or “Reign Over Me,” we got “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan,” “Bed Time Stories” or “I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.” But we already have plenty of examples in the films I mentioned—”Mr. Deeds,” “Anger Management,” “50 First Dates,” “The Longest Yard.” In all of them, the loud, immature guy—the one who yells a lot and leans into the absurd—still shows up, but it’s dialed back. There’s a noticeable shift in tone, a kind of balance between the over-the-top antics and something a little more grounded.
I also used the word “repressed,” and I believe that also applies in a lot of his work. Many of these characters, like Barry Egan (“Punch-Drunk Love”), we see a man holding up to this anger product of this personal and sexual repression. He’s a man imploding inside, and we see minor glimpses of this. “Reign Over Me” (one of his most underrated roles) is about a man who’s going through a depression. He’s acting up all chill and cool, but he’s dying inside, and we see this suffering really well conveyed in the scene in which he yells out his pain in such a way that it breaks your heart, his tears are convincing, and it’s a small but effective moment.
We got a lot of these films in which it appears Sandler just wanted to go out on a vacation and bring his friends, like “Grown Ups,” which I have to say, there’s a lot of goofy, Happy Madison stuff in it. However, Sandler isn’t clowning around as much as I was expecting. He actually lets a lot of the nonsensical stuff to the people around him and side characters (something that’s not uncommon in his movies). We also got stuff like “The Meyerowitz Stories” and his crown jewel (no pun intended) “Uncut Gems,” in which the Safdie Brothers do a brilliant job in utilizing his charm enough for you not wanting to kill this man who commits all these kind of wrong decisions, while also letting us audiences to be at the edge of having an anxiety attack.
In conclusion…
This was honestly a bit of a revelation. It was interesting to see how Sandler has matured throughout his career. His 90s persona, the SNL guy/Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison persona, is so embedded in our minds that one tends to forget what a talented actor he has been for a while now. Here’s hoping we get to see more of this in the following years, whether it’s full-on dramas or sneaking into some of his comedies.
What do you guys think? What’s your favorite Sandler performance?
