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If you went by the trailer, you would think Big Daddy was a
collection of gross-out moments somehow tied together by a loudmouthed Adam
Sandler. This type of promotion seems to be aimed at getting teenage boys
(that important market segment) to buy tickets -- after all, would they buy
tickets to a story about family and love?
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But these concerns are at the heart of the Adam Sandler characters, in a
series of films written by Tim Herlihy, usually with Sandler, and here with
Steve Franks as lead screenwriter.
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Big Daddy is another fairytale where a decent, if childlike,
thirtyish hero has to face a hostile world and find a way to assert the
things he believes in: family ties and the value of love. In Happy
Gilmore, Hap had to find a way of getting money to save his
Grandma's house being sold for back taxes; in The Water Boy, Bobby
Boucher lived in a fairytale cabin on the bayou with his Mama while
searching for a niche in life; in The Wedding Singer Robbie Hart
had to protect his princess from a sleazebag adulterer. And in Big Daddy,
Sonny Koufax must ultimately reunite/create families.
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Sonny Koufax (Sandler) takes a special delivery from Social Services of a
five-year-old boy called Julian (Cole and Dylan Sprouse), the product of a
college-days fling by his current roommate and past fellow student, Kevin
(Jon Stewart). Sonny loyally pretends to be the child's father while
attorney Kevin is away on business before his wedding to doctor Corinne
(Leslie Mann).
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Playing Dad, Sonny shares the juvenile pastimes of his idle
lifestyle -- funded by compensation for an accident -- with the tot, while
discovering an interest in Corinne's sister, Layla (Joey Lauren Adams);
however, the film's biggest laughs come not from the schoolboy "mucking
up" -- the food messes and bodily functions in the scenes being promoted -- but
from the set pieces involving the adult characters, like cameos from Steve
Buscemi and director Dennis Dugan and the hysterical courtroom
scene, the custody hearing to decide Julian's fate.
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In the Adam Sandler world, his character tries to behave decently, and is
ultimately rewarded; so we know they're fairytales. In the world of
Election, decent behaviour seems to be a mortal
impossibility, greed is good, and the richest rewards can go to the
canniest manipulators.
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Though set in a high school, Election is not a "high school comedy"
any more than the satirical Rushmore was, or any more than the
setting defines a situation comedy. Remorseless and often howlingly funny, its
screenplay provides Matthew Broderick with his best role
in a long time.
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As in Peyton Place, passions percolate behind a neat exterior in
Election -- behind the middle American face of Omaha, Nebraska, and
one of its typical local high school communities. Forbidden relationships,
blind ambition, revenge, rocketing ascent and bottomless falls await the
desperate characters to be found here.
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Dedicated teacher Jim McAllister (Broderick) loses a friend when fellow
teacher Dave Novotny (Mark Harelik) destroys his marriage and leaves town
following an affair with nobody's pet, the school's ace crawler, Tracy Flick
(Reese Witherspoon). When Tracy decides to stand for student president, Jim
makes sure it won't be a walkover by flattering dumb jock Paul Metzler
(Chris Klein) into standing for office as Tracy's opponent.
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The race gets complicated after the girl chosen by Paul's sister Tammy
(Jessica Campbell) as her soulmate tires of Tammy's passion, throws her
over, and gets even by seducing Paul. The jilted Tammy takes revenge by
announcing her candidacy, and immediately wins over the student body by her
platform of abolishing student government. While the campaign race moves
into dirty tricks gear, Jim thinks he sees a chance to improve his grim love
life by pursuing Dave's abandoned wife, Linda (Delaney Driscoll).
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Although Jim tries to teach ethics and morals to his high school students,
no-one in the film seems to have learned what's involved, including the
teacher. To teach such lessons, you often need a fairytale: there, as in
Big Daddy, nice guys win; and bad girls (like Tracy in
Election) finish last -- or at least they would, if Sandler pictures
had any real bad girls, or if they didn't forgive everyone at the end ...
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Details
Big Daddy, by Columbia 1999.
Director: Dennis Dugan.
Screenplay: Steve Franks, Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler.
Cinematographer: Theo van de Sande.
Production Designer: Perry Andelin Blake.
Costume Designer: Ellen Lutter.
Cast: Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Stewart, Rob Schneider, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, Allen Covert, Leslie Mann, Joseph Bologna, Steve Buscemi.
Election, by United International Pictures 1999.
Director: Alexander Payne.
Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, from the novel by Tom Perrotta.
Cinematographer: James Glennon.
Production Designer: Jane Ann Stewart.
Costume Designer: Wendy Chuck.
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik, Phil Reeves.
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Shane Lewis. "Nice Guys Win: A Fairytale -- 'Big Daddy'/'Election'." M/C Reviews 16 Oct. 99.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/comedy.html>.
Chicago style:
Shane Lewis, "Nice Guys Win: A Fairytale -- 'Big Daddy'/'Election'," M/C Reviews 16 Oct. 99,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/comedy.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Shane Lewis. (1999) Nice guys win: a fairytale -- 'Big daddy'/'Election'. M/C Reviews 16 Oct. 99.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/comedy.html> ([your date of access]).
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![[image]](http://www.electionmovie.com/images/picture2.jpg)