Because surely, as Barry Egan, Sandler fulfills his usual clichés: his violent temper is established early, he's emotionally stunted, he's tormented by a cartoonish villain (Phillip Seymour Hoffmann, transcendently infuriated, as the manager of a Midwestern
phone -
sex line / mattress outlet,) he's obsessively pursuing a wacky hobby (an endless collection of
cheap pudding, to be traded for unlimited frequent flyer miles,) and he happens upon the women (Emily Watson) who — with a kiss right out of a fairy tale — can imbue a sense of meaning into all these ailments.