A caring and all around friendly small-town guy named Longfellow Deeds inherits the controlling stake in a New York media conglomerate and quickly upsets the stockholders by the use of his eccentric business tactics in this Adam Sander comedy which costars Winona Ryder as a reporter who is given the duty of finding more about Sandler's eccentric character and John Turturro as Deed's butler. Steve Brill, who directed Little Nicky with Sandler in the past, directs.
Adam Sandler made a major misstep with Little Nicky, his last film. The film alienated his fan base with its far-out attempt at humor and did anything but attract new people to his films with the brutal beating that the film took from the public and critics. After films like Big Daddy and The Wedding Singer, the bizarre Little Nicky was a big departure and obviously turned out to be a wrong choice by Sandler. With Mr. Deeds Sandler returns to the realm of the somewhat clueless but nice guy role he played in the aforementioned Daddy and Singer. Unfortunately, the attempt results in a bland and cloying comedy that is short on the laughs.
Director Steve Brill is quickly becoming the common Sandler cohort as he helms Sandler's second film in a row after Little Nicky. His blasé directing style returns here. He utilizes a generic technique that makes his films look like they are television shows because of the countless set shots that are used. Brill is definitely no Spielberg or Aronofsky. Brill also makes the mistake of lingering too long on the romantic scenes between Sandler and Ryder since it's clear that both actors are very uncomfortable during these 'heavy' scenes.
The acting by Sandler, Ryder and others is uniformly undecipherable and indistinct. Sandler just acts like he doesn't have a clue how to display serious emotions during what is supposed to be the romantic subplot of his and Ryder's characters. He fares better during the comedic portions of the film but isn't at his most humorous here. Ryder doesn't get the funny bits that Sandler has and instead suffers through her thinly written role. The supporting cast with the likes of John Turturro and Steve Buscemi is above average and often times more humorous than Sandler himself. Turturro's butler character has the strange yet humorous habit of pretending to be a spy and sneaking around the large mansion in which he lives and works. This running gag is very funny and shows what the movie could have been had it spent more time developing and caring about the many eccentric secondary characters.
Overall, Mr. Deeds is one very blasé and unworthy comedy that's definitely not a film to rush out and see unless you are a huge Sandler fan.
Rating: 70
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