# Big Daddy (1999)

### reviewed by
Bob Bloom

Big Daddy (1999) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Adam Sandler, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, Joey Lauren Adams, Rob Schneider, Leslie Mann and Jon Stewart.

A sure sign of a pending apocalypse: I enjoyed Adam Sandler's new movie.

In "Big Daddy," Sandler takes another tentative step toward playing an adult, instead of his usual overgrown adolescent dufus.

This process began with "The Wedding Singer," skipping a step along the way with The Waterboy.

In "Big Daddy," Sandler plays Sonny Koufax, a law school graduate who works once a week as a toll booth operator while living off the $200,000 he was awarded from a traffic accident lawsuit. (A taxicab had run over his foot.)

When he is not working, Sonny just loafs around his apartment, eating carry-in food and watching sports on his big-screen television.

One day, a 5-year-old boy, Julian, is dropped off at the apartment Sonny shares with his law school buddy, Kevin. Julian is Kevin's son from a long-ago one-night stand. With Kevin out of town, Sonny adopts Julian under the false pretense of being his biological father.

Sonny is under the misguided impression that adopting Julian will impress his girlfriend, Vanessa, and that she will take him back, realizing he is ready to accept responsibility.

Of course, everything goes wrong. Vanessa dumps him, so Sonny tries to return Julian to social services. However, he agrees to take care of him until the agency can find a good home for the boy.

All this is pure dramatic - or comic, if you will - license. No social service agency in the world would be so inept as to leave a child with an Adam Sandler character, but this is the movies, so let's be charitable.

As time passes, Sonny and Julian form a warm, loving relationship. Sonny teaches Julian such useful skills as how to tumble roller bladers and how to relieve himself against a wall when no bathroom is available.

Sonny also allows Julian to wear whatever clothes he likes and to go by whatever name he prefers. (Julian chooses Frankenstein for some odd reason.)

While "Big Daddy" is replete with a year's allowance of bathroom and vomit humor, it also is a movie with heart.

Sonny does come to love Julian, and vice versa. He sends the boy to school, helps him with his homework and tries to give him a good home.

Things do begin to unravel when social services officials learn of Sonny's ruse and take the boy away.

But being a comedy, everything works out for the best by the final fade-out.

Sandler is actually likable as Sonny. He adds some warmth and heart to his usual comic repertoire of loud voices and funny faces, but even those are toned down from his previous outings.

A fine supporinting cast, including Rob Schneider as the delivery boy who spends so much time at Sandler's apartment that he is considered one of the family, and Joey Lauren Adams as Layla, the young attorney who comes to love Sonny for his humor and compassion.

Twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse are cute and not too obnoxious as Julian, while Leslie Mann adds a nice comic flair as Corinne, Kevin's fiance - and Sonny's mortal enemy - who used to work at Hooters and is the butt of many jokes.

Another of the movie's finer points is the positive portrayal of two of Sonny and Kevin's law school friends who are gay and have a solid, loving relationship. It is a minor plot point, but one that adds to the overall adult tone of the film.

"Big Daddy" can stand as one big promotion for Hooters because of all the references to Corrine's time their as well as a funny closing sequence that wraps up all the film's loose ends.

The script by Steve Franks, Tim Herlihy and Sandler, based on a story by Franks, is a bit crude and vulgar, but ultimately it is cuddly and touching.

And whoever thought you'd see those words in a review about an Adam Sandler movie. Just goes to show that the human race is constantly evolving.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net

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