Adam Sandler Is A Good Actor…But Does He Know That?
Last week, amidst its various ’80s-TV revivals, animated shows, and comedy specials, Netflix released yet another new original film. Noah Baumbach’sThe Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)depicts the slow-burn, middle-aged fracturing of a family whose patriarch (Dustin Hoffman) is both suffering from illness and still able to emotionally damage his three adult children. In the last few years, Baumbach has balanced between collaborating with Greta Gerwig on films likeFrances HaandMistress Americaand making movies that focus on mid-40s angst and ennui. His leaning on a familiar trope is itself not surprising; what’s shocking is howThe Meyerowitz Storiesmerges two of Netflix’s pet projects in one startling whole: indie cinema andAdam Sandler.
At The A.V. Club recently, Jesse Hassengerarguedthat we need to “admit that Adam Sandler is a good actor.” This much is true: Sandler is quite good inThe Meyerowitz Stories, as Danny, a man whose daughter is about to go to college, whose wife is separating from him, and who is generally unmoored from life in part because of latent resentments he holds towards his father Harold, an ex-professor and sculptor convinced of his own massive talent even if the world disagrees. But while it’s true that Adam Sandler is a good actor, andhasbeen a good actor in the past, he is not a revelation in the film. If anything, we can only hope that Baumbach’s film serves as a reminder of Sandler’s talent…to Sandler himself.
The Meyerowitz Storiesarrived on Netflix (and in a handful of theaters) only a couple of weeks before the 15th anniversary of the actual revelation of Sandler’s talent. Proof that Adam Sandler had more capability within him outside of just making silly voices and shouting arrived in the form ofPunch-Drunk Love. Paul Thomas Anderson’s nervy, unpredictable romantic comedy opened in the fall of 2002 to raves from critics and confusion from audiences who might have expected something less intense and inexplicable than the story of a toilet-plunger businessman who has an awkward romance with a beautiful British woman (Emily Watson), while also fending off a crude phone-sex team from Utah who try to extort him.
Anderson has all but said thatPunch-Drunk Lovewas something that inspired him because of the joy Sandler’s filmsThe Wedding SingerandThe Waterboybrought to him. “I wanna learn from that dude. What is it that’s so appealing about him to so many people? I think he’s this great communicator,” the auteur oncetoldRoger Ebert. But of course, Anderson’s take on an Adam Sandler film features the comic as Barry Egan, an introvert with a highly specialized business, a group of emasculating sisters, a near-inability to hold a conversation without losing his temper, a fixation with Healthy Choice pudding cups, and a mysterious harmonium he plays to gain emotional support. Anderson may have been a fan of Sandler’s comedies likeHappy GilmoreandBilly Madison, but his depiction of the Sandler type is less aspirational and rebellious, and more emotionally fractured and stunted.Punch-Drunk Loveremains one of Anderson’s most remarkable, unnerving, and intense films, and Sandler’s barely hinged performance is largely responsible.
ThoughPunch-Drunk Lovewas not a financial success, it was not so much of a heartbreak that Sandler refused to revert entirely back to his dumb comedies. A couple years later, he co-starred in James L. Brooks’Spanglish, followed byReign Over Mein 2007 and Judd Apatow’sFunny Peoplein 2009. That latter film, title and Apatow connection aside, is as much about critically examining Sandler’s career in lazy comic fare as it is about making dick and marijuana jokes.
So,The Meyerowitz Stories, the first time in eight years when Sandler made a more dramatic film that was not roundly panned (unlikeMen, Women, and Childrenor even Tom McCarthy’sThe Cobbler), is not a surprising film in this respect. There’s enough in Danny that might seem familiar to a fan of Sandler’s work: he’s a diehard Mets fan, he plays music with his daughter, and he even gets into a cathartic, ridiculous shoving match with his half-brother, played by Ben Stiller.
But Danny is, in many ways, a damaged individual who can barely allow himself the self-awareness to admit his own pain. The film, a hybrid ofThe Royal Tenenbaumsand Alex Ross Perry’s snappishListen Up Philip, is unflinching in showing us how badly Harold has screwed up his children: Stiller’s Matthew is the most superficially successful and often treated as the favorite, but even he resents his dad. Danny is older, but ignored despite having his own artistic proclivities in music. Too often, Harold talks over Danny, ignores his interests, and forces his own choices on his adult son.
Sandler never feels remotely uncomfortable or unfit in the role; instead, he arguably offers the film’s best performance. We can chalk this up to age or experience – Danny’s biggest emotional tie is to his daughter Eliza (Grace Van Patten) and Sandler fits surprisingly well as a dad suffering from empty-nest syndrome. The point is this: Adam Sandlerisa good actor. He should keep that in mind.
The last few years have mostly been a dark period, financially at least, for Sandler. He’s working now with Netflix on films likeThe Do Over,The Ridiculous Six, andSandy Wexler. (He’s filming a new one, co-starring Chris Rock.) Before that, he made films likeGrown Ups,Just Go With It,Pixels, andBlended. Too often, his films feel alike feature-length excuses to hang out with his buddies in the tropics or a vacation home in the mountains. We can wonder if the way that audiences ignored or were baffled byPunch-Drunk Loveand even something slightly more mainstream likeFunny Peopleled Sandler to primarily ignore more artistic, challenging roles. Making movies on Netflix offers Sandler vastly more opportunities, without the heartbreak of knowing who is or isn’t watching his movies.The Meyerowitz Storiesoffers yet another piece of evidence in the case that Adam Sandler, like Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, and other stars fromSaturday Night Live, are gifted dramatic actors. Hopefully, Adam Sandler doesn’t need to be further convinced of his own talents.
