Continuing with stand-out performances from this year, we move along to another Saturday Night Live alumni. For years, Sandler worked on SNL and in several “comedies” as an idiot man-child and quickly became one of the biggest box-office draws in America. Never once did Adam Sandler show even a glimmer of any dramatic capabilities. Then, without warning, he was cast in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. What appeared on screen was the same childish character, but older, darker and violent. It turned out to not only be Sandler’s best work to date, but the best performance by any actor that year, in my opinion. Since this turn towards more serious work, he has appeared in a few more serious films (Reign Over Me, Spanglish while still making the types of films that made him famous.

This year something has happened. Sandler, now 42 years old, has teamed up with his old roommate, Judd Apatow, for a film called Funny People. While the title suggests a lot of laughs (which there are), there is a lot of weight to this film and most of it is placed on Sandler’s shoulders. Here he plays a character named George Simmons who, not unlike himself, has became vastly wealthy off of making the kind of movies Saturday Night Live alumni are typically known for. When it turns out Simmons has a form of Leukemia, that world starts falling apart. Throughout the film, George is bombarded by fans, girls looking for a celebrity sex story and the looming shadow of death. Sandler wears it all on his face, rarely flashing that grin that made him who he is now.

Best Scene – There are several to choose from: his first one-on-one with the girl who got away (a terrific Leslie Mann), the Thanksgiving Day dinner, when Seth Rogen plays the final song on the play list he makes for George, his jam session with Jon Brion!, but the one that struck me right away and has stayed with me is the following:

The night after he learns about his dwindling mortality, George shows up at a local stand-up club and performs a surprise show. He comes out, very briefly puts on the act for a few seconds, then derails into babbling about what would the crowd do without him since he won’t be around forever. The audience sits and stares, not sure what to make of the star’s bit. The scene finishes with a close-up of Sandler’s sunken, seemingly sagging face. “Man, it’s quiet in here.”