THE WEEK OF (NETFLIX) (2018)
SYNOPSIS: Two big families. One small house. They just have to survive a few more days to make it to the wedding.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Just when you thought Adam Sandler has redeemed himself with his awesome performance in The Meyerowitz Stories, the once infallible comedian is back in familiar atrocious territory to fulfil his multi-pictures contract with Netflix.
Peppered with lots of vulgarities and mean-spiritedness, The Week of is co-written by Sandler and directed by SNL writer Robert Smigel and it fares like Sandler’s own version of Father of the Bride except it’s far from funny and hardly touching.
Kenny Lustig (Sandler), a small-time Jewish contractor in Long Island is about to marry off his eldest daughter, 23 year old Sarah (Allison Strong) to Tyler (Roland Buck III), a more than decent African-American young man who has a very rich, successful surgeon father, Kirby (Chris Rock). Promising Sarah and Kirby that he will handle all the wedding matters himself (finances included), Kenny is facing one hell of a week as he juggles between a lacklustre wedding venue, overbearing relatives from both sides and tonnes of family issues.
And most importantly, we are supposed to find all of it ticklish and meaningful in the end.
Right from the start, we are treated to Kenny’s paraplegic uncle and his potty gags because Sandler feels it’s okay for audiences to laugh at how a paraplegic person does his or her potty business. Then there is the repetitive issue of ceiling leakages at the hotel where Kenny is putting up all the relatives at after declining Kirby’s offer of finding an alternative hotel venue, the Oriental for instance. Then there are the shouting matches between Kenny and his wife, Debbie (SNL veteran Rachel Dratch), the undesirable antics of Kenny’s cousin, Charles (Steve Buscemi), a sort of autistic troubled young man and the horny, estranged-from-his-entire-clan Doctor Kirby.
Again, The Week of feels like an episode of Grown Ups. The jokes are consistently mean, the story on the whole is messier than the map of New York and the performers seem to be phoning in especially Chris Rock who deserved a much better movie despite being billed prominently on the poster.
We absolutely get it, the fact that Sandler is playing the recurring role of a goofball who is trying to make the world a better place despite his missteps. But sadly, Sandler seems to forget the same old character he so used to playing is no longer relevant in today’s world perhaps to put it bluntly, we no longer see the need to watch the character of Kenny Lustig on the big screen or on Netflix anymore. There’s always The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore on the latter or Kevin Hart for the matter.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
