The Week Of (2018)

“The Week Of” stars Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rachel Dratch, Steve Buscemi, Allison Strong, and Noah Robbins.  Released on Netflix on April 27, 2018, the film has two fathers attempting to survive each other for a week before their children’s wedding.

The film is directed by Robert Smigel, who is known for his “TV Funhouse” skits on “Saturday Night Live”.  He is also known for co-writing the Hotel Transylvania films and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan”.  After experiencing the emotional roller coaster known as “Avengers: Infinity War”, it’s time for me to shift away from the superhero genre for a while and get right back into the Netflix business.  This is the fourth collaboration between Adam Sandler and Netflix, both of which were having a hard time impressing their audiences with their recent movies.  This year, they’re hoping to strike gold with this latest comedy that places two different families under the same roof as one another.  Unfortunately, there's no gold to be had here since it’s been getting plenty of negative buzz.  After watching it for myself, I can understand that it’s not perfect, but to be perfectly honest with you guys, I had a nice time with it.  In fact, I would probably say that this is Sandler’s most tolerable Netflix film yet.

Even though it’s marketed as a comedy, the film actually feels somewhat more like a drama about families from different cultures coming together to celebrate the marriage of their children.  It does have some comedic moments, even the ones that are more suited for a typical Adam Sandler comedy, but they didn’t go as far as being over-the-top or overly offensive.  People who are looking for the over-the-top comedy may not be happy with this type of result, but if you’re looking for something that makes you feel good inside or reminds you of that situation, this film has it.  The story does hit a few bumps in the road in terms of depth and the runtime was a bit longer than it needed to be, but it solidly captures the feeling of this type of celebration.  Families coming together, families running into some awkward problems before the wedding, and the emotions families get after the wedding, especially the fathers.  Robert Smigel had the right mixture of comedy and drama to depict something that almost everyone can relate to.  Adam Sandler delivered a very tolerable performance as Kenny Lustig, the father of the bride.  When Sandler’s not doing his usual comedic schtick, he often handles drama pretty darn well, and his role here is no exception.  Chris Rock also turned in a fine performance as Kirby Cordice, another father, and his chemistry with Sandler had enough moments to keep the film going for me.  Even the comedy had some good moments that made me laugh, with most of them coming from the awkwardness of some of the situations.  Sure, they’re not memorable, but at least they’re not as overly stale or over-the-top as the humor in “Game Over, Man!”.

Overall, “The Week Of” may not survive the entire week with its easy-to-spot flaws, but aside from that, it’s a surprisingly decent Sandler film with a good amount of heart thrown into it.  The performances from the cast and the film’s mixture of comedy and drama have enough momentum to stray away from the usual issues that Sandler's other Netflix films had.  I still find it hard to believe that people are dissing on something that’s supposed to make us feel good.  Oh well, that’s their problem, I guess.  If you like Adam Sandler in some of this movies, try giving this one a shot if you have a Netflix account.

B-