Why is Adam Sandler an Architect?

            One of my favorite things to watch on YouTube are video essays, particularly when they discuss movies. For example, I love the work of Leon Thomas, who does video essays on films (and media overall) while discussing their themes and philosophy on his channel Renegade Cut. Another YouTuber whose videos I sometimes watch comes from Big Joel, and I was watching his recent video critiquing the Adam Sandler movie Click. I remember first watching this movie in the dollar theater with my family back in 2006. I kind of had mixed feelings about it. There were of course moments that made me laugh, even if I felt some of the humor was just ehh…, and this was also one of Adam Sandler’s films in which he tried to be more dramatic as well. And there is one aspect of Click I was thinking about after watching Big Joel’s video on the film.

            Why is Adam Sandler’s character an architect?

            In case you don’t know the plot of Adam Sandler’s Click, he plays an overworked architect named Michael Newman who oftentimes finds himself choosing between work and his family. A classic theme we often find in movies if there ever was one. He has an overbearing boss (actually played by David Hasselhoff) and Sandler’s character of Michael wants to get promoted and make more money and hopefully become partner (another common trope found in movies). He receives a magical universal remote from the enigmatic Christopher Walken and uses it to try to improve his life.

            In the middle of the movie, Michael impresses his boss so much that he’s promised a promotion with more pay. He’s so excited that he buys his two cute children brand new bikes, and his wife portrayed by Kate Beckinsale a designer bag. But then Michael finds out that his overbearing boss won’t promote him (and thus won’t get a pay raise) until a particular project is finished. Back at home Michael wails that he’s tired of, “Just getting by.” And he overhears his wife, in a scene that’s actually kind of sad, telling his children that they have to return the bikes because they don’t have enough money to keep them (although I doubt a store would refund a couple of bikes that we see were already used outside by the children).

            Okay, here are my thoughts on these scenes. In reality, the average architect makes nearly eighty thousand dollars. Even if Adam Sandler’s character was in the lower 25% of architects, he’d still make over $60,000.00 per year. And it’s not like he’s in an entry-level position; he’s been at his career for years. Also, not once did I feel that his family was struggling financially. They may not have been rich, but they had a nice house in a safe, lovely neighborhood and seemed to be middle class, perhaps even upper middle class.

            I truly think that he could have afforded a couple of kids’ bikes and a bag without having to go hungry.

            Maybe if there was more of an explanation for why Sandler’s character was apparently struggling financially, and why they felt that they had to return the bikes to the store (that had already been used outside!) to survive. Maybe if he still had a ton of student loans to pay off (it does take a lot of schooling to be an architect after all). Or if there was a relative with health issues, and he had to pay a ton of health bills to support him or her. Or if Michael had previously been unemployed for a long stretch of time, and was lacking money. Just something that would make these scenes make a little more sense.

            Another route that the movie could have gone in would have involved Michael buying much more extravagant things for his family. Immediately upon hearing about the promotion, he could have come home with super expensive items, like a brand new car or a first-class trip to Hawaii. Something that truly would lessen one’s wallet unless they were suddenly making a lot more money.

             I also thought about a scene that happens later on, when Sandler gets his promotion to partner. David Hasselhoff as his boss suggests that maybe, just maybe, he could someday become the CEO of the architectural firm. And later on in the movie, he actually does.

            Okay, even if Sandler’s character was the greatest architect to live since Frank Lloyd Wright, does that automatically mean he’s qualified to actually run the firm? Designing a building and running a business are two completely different skill sets. Maybe if they had had a short scene in which Michael says, “Oh yes, I double majored in both architecture and business.”

            Watching the movie also made me think of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. To be clear, I am not a believer in her philosophy of Objectivism, and I found all of the characters in her book (whether supposed hero or villain) to be mentally insane and sociopathic (Ayn Rand also very much had her own issues). But I had read the book in high school after being assigned Anthem in my English class. Anyway, in the book the main character is Howard Roark, an architect who will stop at nothing to achieve his artistic visions. He ignores what his potential clients want for their very expensive buildings, insisting that he knows better than anyone else on Earth. There’s even an antagonist named Ellsworth Toohey, a newspaper critic who puts his time and energy into destroying this architect’s career and turning public opinion against him (an odd motivation for a villain in my opinion, not something that either Darth Vader or Thanos would probably invest their time in). But in the end Howard Roark prevails as the genius architect that he knows he is.

            Adam Sandler’s character, by contrast, quickly bows to the wishes of his clients. He uses the magical universal remote at one point to translate what some Japanese clients want, and he then immediately changes his blueprints to their satisfaction. Now granted, Sandler’s character is a family man, with a wife and two kids to support. Howard Roark was single during the entire mammoth book, with only himself to take care of. He dates a woman named Dominique on and off again, but never seems to show any interest in ever having an actual family, with architecture being his ultimate love. The Fountainhead may have been a different book if the protagonist was responsible for people other than himself.

            During the entire movie, Adam Sandler doesn’t seem to have any real passion for architecture. He works hard at his job because he wants to provide a better and more affluent life for his family and himself. But you could have had a scene in which he talks wistfully about architecture. Maybe you could have a scene of Michael in his study at home, browsing through a book of famous buildings. Maybe he could even be holding up a picture of a drawing of a building he did as a child, something he held onto from a time in which he was a more hopeful and optimistic child. He could smile bittersweetly, remembering a time in which he dreamed of creating the next Empire State Building. He could have a monologue about how he feels he’s had to compromise any artistic vision he may have had in order to rise in his career. While Click was in many ways a typical Adam Sandler with his brand of humor in it, the film still had a few moments of drama in it, and I think a scene like this would have been good.

            So why was Adam Sandler an architect in this movie? Wanting to rise in affluence and stature motivated his character, and he didn’t seem to have a deep love of architecture. He could have been in another field and parts of the plot and his motivation would have made just as much, if not more sense.

            Here’s one suggestion. He could have been a struggling comedian. He could be down on his luck, struggling to keep his family afloat financially. And he uses the universal remote to see what made his audience laugh, thus rising in his career after years of struggle. That I think would have made the film more interesting, and maybe would have also played more to Sandler’s strengths.