THE WATERBOY
In The Waterboy, Sandler has reassembled the successful team from
last year's The Wedding Singer:
co-writer Tim Herlihy and director Frank Coraci. They have turned out an
adequate script and cast it with adequate actors. But Sandler's character
is almost too silly for the film. Maybe the fault is Coraci's, who directed
everyone else but left Sandler to his own devices.
The Waterboy is based in southern Louisiana. Sandler's character,
Bobby Boucher (pronounced "Boo-shay"), is a simple-minded 31 year
old cajun with a passion for "high-quality H2O." After he is fired
from a large Louisiana university football team by its coach, Red (Jerry
Reed), Bobby seeks employment at a smaller college's team, under Coach Klein
(Henry Winkler). Klein's Mud Dogs are the losingest team in Louisiana history,
but signing Bobby on as waterboy turns out to be the smartest move he's
ever made.
Bobby lives in a bayou shack with his overprotective Mama (Kathy Bates),
and dreams of marrying the comely but delinquent Vicki Vallencourt (Fairuza
Balk). He puts up with abuse from all the football players, except when
they make fun of his Mama or tamper with his water. If this happens, he
goes into an uncontrollable rage, tackling the offending person to the ground.
When Coach Klein sees this talent, he recruits Bobby as a defensive back,
and a winning season is born. The team makes it all the way to the "Bourbon
Bowl," where it competes with Red's team to predictable results. At
this point, cameo appearances are made by several pro football players and
commentators.
Though it turned out better than I expected, The Waterboy suffers
from a conflict of vision on the part of its producers. Sandler, with his
broad style, handles it like an exaggerated character study, but Coraci's
direction is that of a feel-good film. Most of the other characters are
at least slightly believable and the plot is surprisingly tight; the story
moves along with much more coherence than Bobby Boucher does. The ending
is light and satisfying, but there's Sandler, still stuck in this SNL
caricature he has created. It's not often that you have a movie whose star
is its worst actor.
Sandler proved last year that he can be believable as a real person, but if he insists on playing overblown caricatures, he may not get many more chances. ***½