By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
In what is projected to be his most honest role since starring in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch Drunk Love,” Palisadian Adam Sandler has taken a break from Happy Madison to star in Academy Award-nominated writer and director Noah Baumbach’s dark comedy “The Meyerowitz Stories.”
In familiar Baumbach form, the story surrounds the frayed family ties between brothers Danny and Matthew Meyerowitz. Danny—played by Sandler—is a musician from New York whose main life objective is to be a good father to his daughter, Eliza.
Danny’s brother Matthew—played by Baumbach-regular Ben Stiller—is a successful, yet entirely stressed, Los Angeles financier. After years spent apart in their distant rival cities, Danny and Matthew are forced to reunite after their father—played by a bearded, bohemian Dustin Hoffman—falls ill and slips into a coma.
“What’s great about family for a narrative and character is that by definition, they’re all parts of the same person, so you have these built-in Venn diagrams of where they’re similar and where they’re different,” Baumbach told Variety magazine. “Casting Stiller and Sandler, who have been compared to each other and grown up in the movie business together, I thought, ‘How exciting, to have them represent these two brothers.’”
Produced by media streaming giant Netflix, “Meyerowitz” received glowing reviews and extended ovations at last month’s Cannes Film Festival. Although Netflix has not yet issued the film’s official release date, those who appreciate Sandler as an unfeigned, emotional comic, look forward to the break in his recent string of critically panned outings.
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