The fact that Adam Sandler can jump back and forth between stupid low-brow humor movies like Jack and Jill and That’s My Boy and still make movies like Uncut Gems, Punch-Drunk Love and Hustle is not only impressive, it’s goddamn eerie. Even though it wasn’t one of his best movies, I actually felt The Cobbler was the step in the right direction for Sandler breaking out of the sophomoric humor while still having fun with a comedy. It needed more of a polish.
He’s currently filming a movie directed by Noah Baumbach co-starring with George Clooney, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Riley Keough. It’s the second time he’s been in a Baumbach movie after The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Enhanced). It’s almost like you can tell he’s getting tired of making the same movies with his Saturday Night Live alum who can’t get anything done on their own. Loyalty is one thing and it’s a great virtue but you can’t polish a turd. He’s already 57 and a family man. There’s only so many “dick and fart jokes” you can keep telling before they repeat.
Not only has Sandler grown up, but so has his audience. Some of them are grandparents now. It’s been 31 years since the comedy album They’re All Gonna Laugh at You was released. Spaceman, the latest more serious Sandler pic isn’t up there with the more serious movies he’s done. It seems to be somewhere with Reign Over Me, Funny People I Spanglish. Sometimes you can try too hard not to try too hard. But it’s not really his fault.
Johan Renck, who made the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, directs the adaptation of the Jaroslav Kalfar novel Spaceman of Bohemia. And sometimes, something that works better on the written page doesn’t translate to live-action as good. (The Walking Dead and Stephen King novels are proof positive of that.) Part of the problem and I’m just going to say it if you’re going to make a movie about a Czech astronaut, it’s probably best to cast a Czech actor. Sandler plays Jakub Prochazka and he’s six months into a space mission investigating a cloud of dust and particles behind Jupiter.
However, things seem to be getting to him. Even the monotony of his daily routines seem to have him bored that during a Q&A with people back on Earth, he doesn’t freshen up. It seems the only things he really looks forward to are the common video messages his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), keep sending him. But when he went on the mission, she was pregnant. And she’s told him that she wants to leave him. However, Commander Tuma (Isabella Rossellini) prevents this latest message from reaching him.
And as he wonders what’s wrong with Lenka as mission control won’t tell him the truth, a giant space spider shows up in a compartment that has telepathic abilities. Jakub names it Hanus and it’s voiced by Paul Dano. It’s pretty obvious that Jakub is hallucinating as it’s been scientifically proven that people who spend long periods of time without any human contact around in closed quarters tend to hallucinate. Prisoners in solitary confinement have reported the same thing. Spaceman seems like a hybrid between Solaris and Life of Pi as Hanus explores Jakub’s memories learning about his father and his strained relationship with Lenka.
Sandler gives a wonderfully reserved performance that in a far more structured movie would’ve been one of his greatest. Is Hanus real? Probably not. Like the tiger named Richard Parker in Life of Pi, it was really just a symbol of the main protagonist. This is about a man coming to terms with his own fears and what’s more scary than a huge spider.
Spaceman spent three years after principal photography wrapped before it premiered on Netflix on March 1. Word is that it got poor results from test screenings. I can understand why. A lot of people can’t understand it. Sandler doing such a strange movie seems so out of character for him. Yet, it does show that he has some willingness to take on more gutsier movies. I mean, even Jack Nicholson started out in a silly performance in The Little Shop of Horrors. Tom Hanks was on a sitcom where he dressed as a woman.
I feel given the right material and people taking him more serious, Sandler might one day be nominated for an Oscar and quite possibly win. Look at Matthew McConaughey. Sandler, like Jim Carrey, is able to put the wackiness away and be serious by tapping into his true emotions. Take how he was praised for how he acted when he took his daughter to an IHOP but there was a long wait time. He just kindly thanked the hostess and left. Sandler has learned he doesn’t always have to be on.
I think Roger Ebert described it best when he praised Chevy Chase in Funny Farm by saying, “It’s a performance, not an appearance.” Unfortunately, Mulligan and Rossellini have thankless roles. I don’t think many people will like it even though it can be sat through once.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 