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Adam Sandler stars in Bedtime Stories.
Is it possible that Adam Sandler has grown up? The man-child who once went back to elementary school in Billy Madison and learned lessons from a five-year-old in Big Daddy used to make comedies appropriate for adults only. With Bedtime Stories, however, Sandler has made a movie that men, women and children alike can enjoy.
A lot of the credit goes to Adam Shankman, the director behind such family-friendly hits as Hairspray and The Pacifier. Sandler is Skeeter, a Los Angeles handyman whose father owned a family motel at the corner of Sunset and La Cienega. This run-down motel has been purchased by hotel tycoon, Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths), who belittles Skeeter with the lowest of tasks. Nottingham then offers Skeeter an olive branch. He gives him a chance to run the hotel, the only catch being that he needs to think of a new theme for the hotel, and one that is superior to that of rival hotel employee Kendall (Guy Pearce), a prissy, high-maintenance lout.
At the same time, Skeeter’s sister, Wendy (Courteney Cox), leaves town to look for work in Arizona, asks him to babysit her kids, Patrick and Bobbi (Jonathan Morgan Heit and Laura Ann Kesling). Even though they live in the same city, Skeeter barely knows his niece and nephew. Matt Lopez and Tim Herlihy’s script vaguely explains that Wendy’s ex-husband didn’t like Skeeter, so he wasn’t welcome at their home. Skeeter regales them with bedtime stories about cowboys, gladiators and space fighters. Suddenly, though, the bedtime stories he has made up start finding a way to reappear in his actual life.
What follows in the movie is a series of dreamscape adventures in which Skeeter has a bunch of unrealistic encounters, most of which are mildly amusing, bit little more than that. And then, on top of everything else, Bedtime also becomes a love story when Skeeter meets Jill (Keri Russell), Wendy’s friend. When eco-happy Jill and Skeeter get off on the wrong foot, it’s clear that love will rule the day. As the children concoct their own stories, Skeeter and the rest of the cast are dragged through a variety of run-of-the-mill fantasies – an Old West showdown, a medieval joust, a chariot race in ancient Greece – in which Skeeter inevitably beats the bad guy and wins the girl.
Herlihy is a Sandler regular, having helped pen 50 First Dates, Billy Madison, and Wedding Singer, but he appears to have hit a bit of a slump. While Bedtime has its charms, a film about imagination could have benefited from a little bit more of it. The adventures aren’t particularly creative or adventurous, and bore when compared to the effects of even Night at the Museum. However, it looks like Shankman spared no expense on the budget. Some of the gags fare better than others, including Skeeter being bitten on the tongue by a bee.
Sandler does what Sandler does best; play Adam Sandler. There is nothing new or different to this performance than most of his previous ones, but Heit and Kesling go a long way toward making him look sweeter. Griffiths and Pearce give great, over-the-top performances, as one might expect. Russell is fine, though doesn’t seem to work hard to elevate anything lacking in the script.
Not faring as well is Lucy Lawless as Aspen, the hotel’s brittle desk clerk and Kendall’s cohort. Far worse is Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as Mickey, Skeeter’s friend from the motel. His performance is one of constant, hammy mugging.
However, Shankman is able to cobble all of these pieces together to make one fun puzzle. It is to the credit of this multi-talented director that Bedtime is a movie that not just parents can watch with their children before telling them bedtime stories of their own.
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