(rated PG-13, 98 mins.)
Adam Sandler reprises the classic Gary Cooper comedy “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”. Of course Sandler is synonymous in most people’s minds with Cooper anyway. Yeah, sure. But, fans will be saying “Gary who?” as Sandler stars as the sweet, lovable guy leading a simple life in New Hampshire, who has a following of locals crowding into a pizzeria, to hear him recite offbeat greeting card poetry. This all changes when he inherits 40 billion dollars (price of inflation; Cooper’s Deed inherited only $20 million), from a long lost relative. Suddenly his world is media, football teams and a private helicopter in corporate America. Upon arriving in Manhattan he is romanced by a female reporter (Winona Ryder, once sung about in Sandler’s “Chanukah Song”), who uses her charm to land stories on the instant playboy. Ryder holds her own in the old Jean Arthur role but doesn’t offer anything new to the character that’s unlikable to begin with. John Turturro is a comic smash as the Spanish-accented butler Emilio while Steve Buscemi does his usual Sandler flick appearance (remember the drunk in “The Wedding Singer”), and earns a couple good laughs. This fish out of water, rags to riches story aimed at even a younger demographic audience, will launch Sandler out of “Little Nicky” hell and back into “Big Daddy”/”Wedding Singer” heaven. He’s happily dysfunctional and coasting-along normal in this pool-of-sharks, that is typical of his most successful roles. Same actor, different role, same moral, wacky dilemmas.
