Click -- 2006 -- PG-13

I remember wanting to see this one from the well-constructed trailers. It's quite simply about a guy who is given a universal remote for his life. We're not talking just his present life; he can back up to any point in his life and review everything going on, he can pause his present, and even get a commentary by James Earl Jones. All of this begins as some great fun and comedy and Adam Sandler plays it very well with great effect.

Things start to get hairy when he decides he doesn't want to deal with something and fast forwards. All he has to do is think of where he wants to end up and he ends up at that point in his life. And so begins the dramatic part of the story which passes from amusing to heart-wrenching as we wheel along. The characters are well-played and the main ones are rounded out sufficiently to completely understand them and their motivations. It's a very simple story which only serves to help it in the area of the character development.

The drama takes over the comedy in the latter part of the film, and it is this latter part that really gives the film its staying power. The theme is all about the decisions you make in life and the consequences. When fast-forwarding, his life went on "auto-pilot" meaning that whatever was most important took center stage. So while he was skipping these parts, everyone else still experienced him acting this way, and he was left in the end to decide whether it was all worth it.

Sure, I can find a weakness in the fabric of it all. Since we're dealing with a movie that involves the intangible concept of time, there were some minor logic flaws. It felt like there were some ideas that were in one scene, but dropped in the next scene (such as a scene where focus was placed on him dropping the remote on the carpet as he ran up the stairs; I thought something was going to happen with this, but it was back with him in the next scene).

The one thing I wanted him to do with this ability was never done in the entire movie. If I had this little device, I would pause my life, and do a bunch of things that needed to be done, and then unpause. That way, I've finished what I need to do and can move on. Granted, it would be limited to physical things, but he could have finished the treehouse on pause. Anyway...

I liked it. It was well-constructed and clever. It had a solid moral core to it. It had scenes that were well-acted and very dramatic. Definitely one of the better films I've seen recently.