The Michigan Daily - Monday, July 3, 2006 - 13
Fast forward past
humorless 'Click'

By Imran Syed
Daily Arts Writer
As college students, we've all been
there. Life come
t you fast, and,
at the moment you Click
think you can han- At the Showcase
dle no more, your and Quality 16
workload grows Columbia
beyond your wild-
est dreams, mak-
ng the next couple of weeks of your
life an absolute hell.
But wouldn't it be great if you
could just fast forward through that
hectic period and cut to the good
part? A remote control to control our
lives: We've all fantasized about it at
one time or another.
And now, one man finally has that
control. Unfortunately, that man is
Adam Sandler, and he can do naught
but abuse his power in "Click,"
teaching us all, if inanely, to be
careful what we wish for.
Sandler, now in his semi-legiti-
mate, post-"Punch Drunk Love"
days, plays Michael Newman, a tal-
ented architect with a nice house,
cute kids and an angelic wife (Kate
Beckinsale, "Underworld"). But of
course, all this success comes at a
*ost, and Michael's is his job, which

leaves him little time or energy to
enjoy his life. One night, unable
to select the right remote to turn
on the television, from a handful,
Michael storms out of his house,
vying to return with a universal
remote to simplify his life. At the
"Way Beyond" section of his local
Bed Bath and Beyond, however, he
gets far more than he bargained for
- a remote that actually controls
his life.
Such is the premise, and does it
ever have potential. Is that poten-
tial realized? Not really. Michael
plays around with the features of
the remote - hitting pause to fart
in the face of his demanding boss,
in classic Sandier form - but fails
to do the first thing I think we'd all
do: Relive the greatest moments of
our lives. Instead of exploring as a
normal person would, the film has
Michael fast-forwarding through
undesirable segments of his life,
first minutes and hours, then weeks,
months and years. This impatience
on Michael's part is important to the
central theme of the movie, but is so
annoyingly interjected that it robs
from that very theme.
The movie tells us, first humor-
ously, then tragically, that life is
beautiful even in its low moments.
Missing out on even one minute, it
tells us, is one minute too much. But

"And if I hit this button, I hypnotize people into seeing my movie."

by making parts of Michael's life
so inanely complex, the film leaves
viewers with a sense of unbelieving
in that very message; Michael's life
is so complicated and his personal-
ity so unlikable, we're left thinking
that maybe some lives really are bet-
ter not lived.
That said, the film is unique in the
way that it plays out, almost unique
enough to be worth seeing. The first
act is a typical Sandler shtick, com-

plete with the random tantrums and
the aforementioned fart jokes. But,
the film turns, indeed reels, quickly
into a drama so intense and eventu-
ally tragic that viewers are left over-
whelmed, more with confusion than
anything else
In trailers, the film was advertised
as the usual Sandler giggler with a
slight touch of morality, but in its
middle third, it becomes a tenacious
drama that overwhelms itself before

returning to the advertised light-
hearted fare.
The film wants to teach us (with
that idiotic remote control) that
we should be thankful for what we
have because it may be gone before
we know it. But couldn't you just
hit rewind? For some reason, this
possibility never occurs to Michael,
just one of many holes in a film
with good intention but hopelessly
feeble execution.

SHORT

TAKES

NELLY FURTADO
LOOSE
GEFFEN RECORDS
Remember when Missy Elliot teamed up with Timbaland,
released great albums and then proved he was the sole reason for her
success with The Cookbook? Now that Timbaland has some free
time,he's take on a brain child to make successful: Nelly Furtado.
The former teeny-bopping songstress has traded in the lovelorn
pop ballads for dense dancehall beats and a composed, sexual
swagger unlike any of the other mainstream divas. "Promiscu-
ous" the first single off Furtado's latest,Loose,rides smooth key-
boards, handelap snares and a conversational melody between
Timbaland and Furtado. And the latest single, "Maneater, is

similarly sexually charged and embarrassingly catchy.
But like any albumTimbaland works on, it seems he only con-
trols half ofthe disc.Loose opens with the aforementioned singles
and is accompanied by the like-minded"Afraid,""Glow"and"Te
Busque" but slips into Furtado's pop-ballad territory of old ("In
God's Hands" and "All Good Things (Come to An End)").
For the sake of Furtado's career and our sweaty dancing plea-
sure,though, we can only hope that Loose is a precursor of things
to come. And Furtado will follow Missy's path. So while Furta-
do's videos won't be as cool or original, she's definitely hotter.
And that's always a plus.

Chris Gaerig

ns to our
.,

,secon annual
akea
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