Plot
A sweet-natured, small-town guy inherits a controlling stake in a media conglomerate and begins to do business his way.

Release Year: 2002

Rating: 5.6/10 (54,815 voted)

Critic's Score: 24/100

Director: Steven Brill

Stars: Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder, John Turturro

Storyline
When Longfellow Deeds, a small-town pizzeria owner and poet, inherits $40 billion from his deceased uncle, he quickly begins rolling in a different kind of dough. Moving to the big city, Deeds finds himself besieged by opportunists all gunning for their piece of the pie. Babe, a television tabloid reporter, poses as an innocent small-town girl to do an exposé on Deeds. Of course, Deeds' sincere naiveté has Babe falling in love with him instead. Ultimately, Deeds comes to find that money truly has the power to change things, but it doesn't necessarily need to change him.

Writers: Clarence Budington Kelland, Robert Riskin

Cast:
Adam Sandler - Longfellow Deeds
Winona Ryder - Babe Bennett
John Turturro - Emilio Lopez
Allen Covert - Marty
Peter Gallagher - Chuck Cedar
Jared Harris - Mac McGrath
Erick Avari - Cecil Anderson
Peter Dante - Murph
Conchata Ferrell - Jan
Harve Presnell - Preston Blake
Steve Buscemi - Crazy Eyes
Blake Clark - Buddy Ward, the Quarterback's Father
John McEnroe - Himself
J.B. Smoove - Reuben
Tom McNulty - Red Parka Man

Taglines: Small town kid, big time right hook

Official Website: Official site |

Release Date: 28 June 2002

Filming Locations: Camp Whittle - 31701 Rim of the World Drive, Fawnskin, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $37,162,787 (USA) (30 June 2002) (3231 Screens)

Gross: $171,269,535 (Worldwide) (2003)

Runtime: 96 min

Trivia:
When filming the scene where Deeds beats up Marty Allen Covert got spun around by Sandler, slipped on the sidewalk and his skull hit the concrete with no protection and was unconscious for a minute.

Goofs:
Continuity: In the credits, George Wallace is listed as playing the "NAACP administrator", however, his character is actually supposed to be an administrator with the United Negro College Fund.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Preston Blake: I'm gonna get to the top of Everest, if it's the last thing I do!
[cut to his frozen but triumphant body clinging to the summit of Mount Everest]

Sandler's lovable fool has a serious message while slipping on a banana skin

Rating:

Nobody goes to see an Adam Sandler movie for spiritual enrichment or intellectual stimulation - let's get that out of the way first. Once you accept you've paid your money to be mildly entertained in a lighthearted, slapstick manner, strap in and enjoy the ride.

I keep hearing Sandler is a major Hollywood player these days with an equal footing as producer as he is actor (he has produced a considerable amount with fellow actor Rob Schneider - the similarly inane but funny - mostly in spite of yourself - Hot Chick being the most recent example, in which he has a cameo role and indeed, Schneider helps Sandler out in Mr Deeds) so it's hard to prove that Sandler is now typecast as a lovable fool, because it's fairly likely he chose the part himself, possibly aware that Hamlet might be a little out of his league. Sandler need only check his bank balance to see that the lovable fool is certainly a lucrative one, having made an absolute mint playing countless other characters blessed with naive charm and a heart of gold.

The story - we all know it's a remake of the classic depression-era propaganda film starring Gary Cooper, designed to lift spirits and foster a sense of community - centres around a picturesque New England town and its perenially-cheerful, smalltown inhabitants, chiefly Longfellow Deeds (Sandler), who inherits a fortune from an uncle he never knew, finds himself at the helm of a media empire and heads to the Big Apple to find out more. Here Winona Ryder steps in as the ambitious TV reporter determined to get her big scoop and dupes the affable Deeds into falling in love with her. All the time she's wearing a wire and a hidden camera to enable their courtship and his antics, sometimes drunken, sometimes heroic, to be broadcast on the evening news. Typically Deeds is the last to know and is appalled when he makes the connection. By which time Ryder's character has fallen in love herself, resigned from her job and is begging for a second chance.

Deeds' only flaw is a short fuse and this is at odds with his generous spirit, who at times could be George Bailey, James Stewart's kindly smalltown character in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), but this spices things up a little and allows the suspension of disbelief to continue a little longer. The number of disrespectful, foulmouthed city folk he takes out is entertaining, while not always convincing, but then times have changed and these days your average bloke doesn't think of taking a swing at a man for swearing in front of a lady (more's the pity I say).

While you could aim criticism at this and jeer at the corny lines and simplistic moral at the film's end, there is something to be cherished here. The moral of course being that money is less important than being true to yourself, and while you're at it, be nice to your neighbour. As Mother Teresa once said, kindly words are heard once but their echoes are heard for ever - Deeds' character and his deeds (pun definitely intended) themselves are echoes of another, lamentably more innocent time and it's uplifting to see this spirit so laboured in the film's remake. It's also refreshing to see this bravely recreated by the producers, who have not shied away from dealing with the film's essence in these cynical times.

It's not all sentimental Queen of Hearts stuff though. There are some hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments that counter the film's message perfectly - the helicopter ride to Manhattan where the crew and Deeds are singing 'A Space Oddity' complete with air-guitar springs to mind here - and there is the usual dose of slapstick you'd expect from a Sandler picture. The 7 flying cats rescued from a burning building by our hero is particularly memorable and as I say, I was laughing in spite of myself.

This humour compliments the film's slushy message and prevents any actual retching in the theatre - leaving the cinemagoer shuffling out content, with a smile on his face - definitely a feelgood movie. I just hope Sandler doesn't attempt It's A Wonderful Life next, I don't think the world's quite ready yet.

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