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The best comedic actors are often relegated to a very particular box, one that pushes us to act totally dumbfounded when they happen to deliver a great dramatic performance. We were stunned by Robin Williams when he took home an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, baffled by Jim Carrey‘s incredible turn in The Truman Show, and shocked to find out that Steve Carrell was more than just Michael Scott (and has now become one of our greatest working actors). There is perhaps no actor we’re harder on than Adam Sandler when it comes to this phenomenon, and frankly, it’s unwarranted. You could make the argument that his habit of producing low-brow comedy makes it a total surprise every time he delivers something like Punch-Drunk Love or Funny People, but the truth is that Sandler’s always been great – and we should stop acting like compelling performances like The Meyerowitz Stories are the only proof we have that he doesn’t suck.
In The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach’s latest film, Sandler stars as Danny Meyerowitz, the son of a past-his-prime sculptor (Dustin Hoffman). Danny, like his siblings (played breathtakingly by Ben Stiller and Elizabeth Marvel) are disappointments to their father, who evaluates everyone and everything around him in casually critical terms without hesitation. When we first meet Danny, he’s freshly separated from his wife and sending his daughter Eliza (Grace Van Patten) off to college, and while he puts on a good face, he’s not taking it well. Over the course of the film, it becomes evident that everything Danny wants to be – an impressive son, affectionate companion, and a supportive father – are usually right out of reach. It’s this identity crisis and his determination to be better that allows Danny to pluck at your heartstrings for the entirety of the film’s duration.
Sandler has earned deservedly rave reviews for his performance, but the real problem here is that many of them imply that Sandler isn’t good and that we should be shocked by such an affecting turn. The ironic truth here is that everything we pick on Sandler for is exactly what makes his performance in The Meyerowitz Stories so great. The first time we encounter his character, he’s doing the shrill yelling that has become a hallmark trait of those who try to imitate him. He sings along to the radio in his goofy falsetto, has obscenity-laden outbursts, and performs physical comedy ranging from an orange juice spit-take to a limping chase of Dustin Hoffman down a New York City street. He boasts a silly mustache and dons blazers with cargo shorts, The vulnerability he emulates that seems to be bowling critics over is not breaking news; the complexity of Danny’s character may not exist in many of the others he’s played, but he’s always been willing to take off the mask and give us a peek into what makes a man tick.
Flops like The Do-Over, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, or Jack and Jill may make it easy for us to feel surprised when we’re gifted with a revelation like The Meyerowitz Stories, but one should not negate the other. With a lengthy résumé full of more Happy Madison throwaways than awards-buzzy fare, there is an apparent unpretentiousness to the projects that he chooses to do, but he wholeheartedly commits to every single one. It’s why we’re still watching Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison and The Wedding Singer (and, for some of us, even Sandy Wexler). Sandler has never been anything short of compelling, regardless of how terrible the script happens to be.
Fifteen years may have passed between Punch-Drunk Love and The Meyerowitz Stories, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done any acting in between. The punchline perception of Sandler is one that isn’t good for anyone. It’s caused us to unfairly scrutinize him for years, prematurely grieve his career, and turn our noses up at his new releases. If we’re lucky, however, The Meyerowitz Stories just might remind people of what’s been there all along. When he yells at honking cars in the film’s first scene, it might be easy to write it off as just another Sandler schtick. From the moment he sits down to play piano and sing with his daughter, however, it’s objectively clear that he’s much, much more than that – and he always has been.
