Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

Christopher Walken (right) and Adam Sandler in a scene from the movie 'Click'. - Contributed

Click is a movie that settles itself between the kind of comedy that made Adam Sandler famous and the kind of comedy he is struggling toward. As such, it combines much slapstick go-for-the-gut laughter with some amount of serious intention and meaningfulness. As a result, Click presents good family fun with heart.

Universal remote

Click is directed by Frank Coraci and written by Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe. The flick focuses on Michael Newman (Sandler) who is attempting to balance his professional and familial ambitions. In an attempt to control his appliances, he goes to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a universal remote. However, he ends up way beyond and instead comes home with a remote that controls his entire universe.

Michael then believes he has struck gold as he can choose which events to participate in, what to fast forward past, and can rewind for information he has forgotten. Of course he is about to learn that all that glitters is not like a rapper's teeth.

Like Jim Carrey, Sandler has long learnt that you can play the weird idiot for only so long. Sandler, therefore, made the big leap toward serious comedy with Punch Drunk Love and found a beautiful in-between flick with the touching Spanglish. Though not as heartwarming as Spanglish, Click provides a good combination between laugh-out-loud humour which wallows in body humour and gratuitous violence and a good family film which employs some wit.

The film also has a good cast. Kate Beckinsale sheds all her period costumes and plays Donna Newman, while Christopher Walken brings his own uniquely-eccentric touch as the remote control salesman, Morty. The flick also features David Hasselhoff, Sean Austin and Henry Winkler.

Behind all the humour, Click is about accepting your life and appreciating your family, even when they tick you off and get in your way and you'd really like to fast forward past them, or at least put them on mute.

Wish to mute

Anyone with ankle-biters will understand the wish to at least occasionally mute the little people or hurry them along when they are not yet ready to go to bed and it is way past their bedtime. Yet, as Click points out, in our haste to get past the things we do not enjoy we may get past some of the best things in life, and miss some important moments.

The movie is particularly relevant to modern living where the 40-hour work-week is becoming a thing of the past for those who wish to scramble up the corporate ladder which sometimes forces us to live life by remote control pushing back the things that matter, in the continuous drive to get ahead.

So, though it starts with a focus on humour, as the flick skips toward the end, it gets more serious though it never becomes serious, sprinkling in honest emotion among the laughter.