FilmJudge - Bedtime Stories

REVIEW

Bedtime Stories
2008
Certificate: PG | Runtime: 95 | Director: Adam Shankman
Starring: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce

Skeeter Bronson (Sandler) works as a handyman as a Los Angeles hotel. Owned by Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths), the hotel replaced the small motel Skeeter's father ran when he was a child. When Skeeter is asked to babysit his sister Wendy's (Courteney Cox) kids he does his best to create exciting bedtime stories for them, and is amazed when they start coming true. Skeeter therefore attempts to mould the stories to fit his life, and to give himself an opportunity to run Nottinghams's new hotel.

Whatever you might think of his contributions to cinema, there is a certain similarity between the majority of Adam Sandler's most successful and memorable performances. He has tended to make the strongest impression when playing characters; be they in the vein of Zohan, Happy Gilmore or Bobby Boucher. The Wedding Singer saw him experiment with playing a more 'standard' character - and it worked well there - but other attempts, such as in Click, Mr. Deeds and Big Daddy, have been less successful. So quite why he appears in Bedtime Stories is a bit of a mystery. The role doesn't suit him or his strengths, nor is the material in general up to much. It's so mediocre it feels like Tim Allen should be involved in some capacity.

The premise of Bedtime Stories isn't exactly a classic, but it's not bad. It's the sort of idea that could make for an effective family film in the right hands. But Bedtime Stories isn't in the right hands, and I'm not just referring to Adam Shankman. The film somehow lacks magic, probably through a combination of badly filmed fantasy sequences - with poor special effects - and the clumsy way the stories begin to come true in the real world. Again, this idea could work if done properly, but here the links are either too vague or too forced. And the other side of the story actually focuses on a romance that feels astoundingly obligatory. Skeeter meets a Jill (Russell), a friend of Wendy's, and they soon start to hit if off after she is initially repelled by him. Sandler and Russell lack chemistry, Jill as a character is paper-thin, and the whole thing just sucks more life out of the film.

Sandler has his moments in Bedtime Stories, though they are too few in number. His performance feels too restrained and half-hearted, though Russell does at least have a degree of natural charm which she comes to rely on. Griffiths is brilliantly oily as Nottingham; a combination of Colonel Sanders in appearance and Howard Hughes in behaviour. And Guy Pearce is also rather good as Kendall, a snivelling and eager employee of Nottingham's who becomes Skeeter's rival for control of the new hotel. Though the less said about Teresa Palmer's English accent as Nottingham's daughter the better. Overall though, this isn't a bad cast; in fact, it's quite a good one. It just isn't utilised properly.

All these things play a factor in Bedtime Stories being a bit of a misfire, but the most important reason why it doesn't satisfy is because it's not very funny. All these things I have already mentioned, in some way or another, contribute to this flaw. But when a film comes to rely on a guinea pig with gigantic CGI eyes for laughs - and when I say 'rely' I'm talking in the region of 30 or 40 times - you know something went wrong at the writing desk.

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