10 Times Adam Sandler Proved He Can Act

Noah Baumbach’s Netflix-released ensemble piece is a veritable who’s who of Jewish-American actors. The juiciest role goes to Dustin Hoffman as the Meyerowitz family’s cantankerous, ailing patriarch, but Baumach gives Sandler (along with fellow comedian stepping out Ben Stiller) the chance to add some strings to his bow with a melancholic turn as the regretful Danny.

Like many of Sandler’s finest roles, comedic and otherwise, he leans on his comedic trump card of uncontrollable rage, but he doesn’t play it for laughs here. He cuts a frustrated figure trying desperately to turn the tides on his disappointing life. Chronically unemployed, Danny dotes on his sickly father in the hope of a handout or a chunk of inheritance. Sandler more than keeps up with the legendary Hoffman, and their overlapping, interrupting dialogue is one of the film’s best features.

Sandler, who comes across as one of Hollywood’s more contented individuals, has a real knack of tapping a hidden sorrow, and his subtle turn as a man who could have done so much more is brought to brilliant life by his sad clown persona.