Click: Holding your heart in the palm of your hand (my first movie review).

After cleaning up the house in preparation for Mike's graduation party we sat down and enjoyed some hot Papa John's pizza last night. Mike hadn't yet seen the movie Click with Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale so Josh and I tried to finagle him into watching it with us last night. Not to be outdone by a mere mortal such as myself, Mike tried to persuade me to watch Rurouni Kenshin with him instead of Click. Kenshin is some sort of crazy anime Japanese show and he was on episode 40 or so. Why in the world would I want to jump in on episode 40? Don't get me started.

The persuading arguments drove us from the dinner table, to the ping pong table and then finally straight to despair. No, not really. We actually went straight for the ice cream and hookah and took the hookah downstairs so that Mike would have to follow if he wanted some. Smoking cheap tobacco makes a convincing argument I guess! Having seized the day, we started the movie.

I found the entire premise of Click absolutely fascinating. The main character, Michael Newman (played by Sandler), finds himself in need of a universal remote for all of the electronics in his house. He comes to realize this supposed need amidst the turmoil of an insufficient family life and a time consuming job that forces him to choose between his family and shadowy promises of future success in his job. One of my favorite quotes from the movie comes when Newman is grumbling about scrapping a long planned camping trip with his family to do some work. He says to his wife, "It's just every choice I make, everything I do, I disappoint somebody." His wife, Donna (played by Beckinsale), responds, "So maybe, you make sure you don't keep disappointing the wrong people!" Desperate to alter these circumstances, Newman actually desires a way to control his own personal universe. However, without a heart change, we see that, "Fear of man will prove to be a snare." (Proverbs 29:25)

Christopher Walken's character, Morty, offers Newman "control" with a "universal remote." In other words, Newman is now able to pause, fast forward and even skip entire "chapters" of life that are a nuisance to him. In these times his body runs on autopilot or, as Morty says, "The lights are on but nobody's home."

The remote consumes Newman as he fast forwards through sex, showers, arguments, sicknesses, traffic, etc. He is figuratively holding his heart in the palm of his hand and has the opportunity to live only in the moments that appeal to him. However, the remote eventually configures itself to Newman's desires by programing itself to skip to his previously expressed ambitions such as work and promotions. His life devolves into bullet points. The problem is that he believes he controls his heart but begins to find out that his intentions in life are self-destructive. His deceitful heart has actually enslaved him. He can recognize his selfish intent but he cannot deny it as the remote simply gives him his heart's desire. To wit, in Jeremiah 17:9, it is written, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

Morty sternly warns Newman by analogy in talking about Lucky the Leprechaun and his Lucky Charms: He says, "He's always chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but when he gets there, at the end of the day, it's just corn flakes." Still, Newman believes his life's value is bound up in his performance at work and his salary instead of the content of his character and perseverance through adversity. He continues to shirk his familial responsibilities and goes straight for the ruinous rewards. Applied through scripture we read, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26)

Newman eventually gets exactly what he wants from life. He becomes the CEO of his company and a multi-millionaire at the expense of a family that he wanted so little to do with. His heart has dominated him and stripped him bare of anything of true worth and value. He loses his wife, a relationship with his family and his life. Ironically, Newman briefly rails against the heavens and yells "why did you do this to me?" Yet, he has been given exactly what he wanted. His ruin is owned solely by him. As James 1:13-15 states, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

Yet, all is not lost for Newman for he is aided by an outside agent. Morty (revealing himself as the Angel of Death) takes mercy upon Newman and returns him to the moment at which he sought the remote. By grace, Newman may start over with eyes to see how capable his heart is of evil. He is granted the gift of his life and restored, though he deserved no such thing. He is given another chance and his response to this gift of unmerited life is great love for his family. Should not the love of all who are "born again" be just as obvious? As it is written in Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."

Do not be fooled into believing that you can do any better than Newman could apart from Christ. Let the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be your Good Helper and let Him bear your sins and burdens and give you life.