Mr. Deeds
© James C. Hess
What goes for government goes for Art. What goes for Art goes for entertainment. What goes for entertainment goes for films and movies.
Which, long way around, goes to explain why Adam Sandler is allowed to make the movies he does:
Because we deserve them.
We deserve them because every single time a new movie (and I use that word loosely) starring this self-serving, no-talent, retrobate finds its way into the local mulitplex the hordes hurry out, money in hand, to pay to watch him do--talent-wise--absolutely nothing, and what he does do amounts to high-priced, perverse acts of self-gratification.
Sandler has one character he plays again and again: An insincere, insecure class clown wannabe who doesn't understand (who does NOT want to understand) that a joke can be told the same way only so many times before it goes from being funny to being cruel.
In "Mr. Deeds" he plays Longfellow Deeds, the owner of a pizzeria, located in the small town (dare I say 'hamlet' because no one actually uses this fine word anymore?) of Mandrake Falls, N.H.
Now. Why a pizzeria? Because this so-called comedy is formulaic, and because, apparently, the only brick and mortar establishment acceptable in such a wretched movie is a pizza parlor; the sort of place where almost every character must come almost every day so as to allow the hero--Deeds--to hold court, and where the plot might not drag so much.
Oh, yes: Should I forget to mention it: Despite efforts to make this remake in the traditional Frank Capra style and tone (the original, entitled "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town", was made in 1936, and is much, much better an effort) that does not happen. Because it does not happen, owing much to the aforementioned Sandler, the plot (what there is) lumbers, wheezes, coughs, gags, chokes, staggers, and hiccups toward resolution.
I digress: The townfolk of Mandrake Falls apparently lack anything better to do with their lives than to provide an audience for Deeds, who holds forth; and when he does not do so they gather at the parlor to talk about him.
Now. To the story of "Mr. Deeds": It turns out Deeds is a distant relation of an aged zillionaire who dies in an attempt to scale Mount Everest. A distant, crazy relation, yes. But one who has a soft spot for relatives such as Deeds: Upon his death by way of freezing, his fortune, his media empire, totaling something like $40 billion, goes to Deeds, who, predictably, is too kind and good and pure of heart to deserve it, to own it. So, predictably, a corporate sleaze named Chuck Cedar (Peter Gallagher), schemes to take it from him.
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