I went back and rewatched "Click" tonight, fully expecting a dumb Adam Sandler comedy featuring fart jokes, fast-forwarding through boring meetings, and yelling at his kids. And for the first half, that’s exactly what it is. It plays like a standard 2000s Sandler vehicle. There's broad humor, a silly sci-fi premise, and the fantasy of skipping the annoying parts of life.
But somewhere around the midpoint, the movie quietly pulls the rug and what starts as a series of jokes about laziness and convenience turns into something tragic. The remote doesn’t just skip arguments or work stress; it skips life and the movie leans into the ramifications of that. The film’s tonal shift is genuinely surprising, especially coming from a movie that marketed itself as pure stupid comedy. Suddenly we’re watching missed moments stack up. The kids growing up, relationships eroding, parents aging. The laughs slow down, and the jokes feel hollow in retrospect.
The scene that really hits is the last moment Sandler has with his father played by Henry Winkler. It’s not subtle but it works. Sandler, who has shown dramatic chops in other films and isn't a one-note comedian, taps into something raw and sincere here. You can feel the regret and panic of realizing you’ve fast-forwarded past the things that actually mattered.
What makes "Click" linger ("Linger" by the Cranberries plays a pivotal role) is how universal that fear is. We all joke about wanting to skip stress or monotony, but the movie forces you to confront the cost of disengaging from the present. It isn't amazing, but it hits closer to home than other films because the tonal shift is so jarring.
For a goofy comedy, "Click" ends up being weirdly memorable for how existential it becomes.