Mr. Deeds

Mr Deeds
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Brill
Produced by	Sid Ganis Jack Giarraputo
Screenplay by	Tim Herlihy
Story by	Clarence Budington Kelland
Starring	Adam Sandler Winona Ryder Peter Gallagher Jared Harris Allen Covert Erick Avari and John Turturro Conchata Ferrell
Music by	Teddy Castellucci
Cinematography	Peter Lyons Collister
Studio	New Line Cinema Happy Madison Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 28, 2002 (2002-06-28)
Running time	96 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$171,269,535 (worldwide)

Mr. Deeds is a 2002 American comedy film, directed by Steven Brill and starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder. The movie is loosely based on the 1936 film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and also stars Peter Gallagher, John Turturro, Allen Covert and Steve Buscemi. The movie was produced by Happy Madison and New Line Cinema and was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

Preston Blake started out hoping to be a disc jockey as a young man, slowly working his way up through the ranks to found Blake Media, a major corporation running hundreds of television and radio stations and with 50,000 employees. After 82-year-old Blake freezes to death on the summit of Mount Everest with a triumphant smile on his face, a search for his heir begins.

It is found that Blake has a living nephew named Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler), who runs a pizzeria in New Hampshire and also writes and attempts to sell greeting cards to Hallmark. Deeds is contacted and brought to New York City by businessman Chuck Cedar (Peter Gallagher), who is temporarily in control of Blake Media. Plans are made for Deeds to sell his shares in the company to Cedar and return home $40 billion richer, but he must remain in New York for a few days while all the legal details are worked out.

The story is major news, and reporter Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder), who works for a tabloid show called Inside Access, has a co-worker pretend to steal her purse in sight of Deeds, because their research indicated Deeds wanted to meet a girl by 'rescuing' her, the same way his father had met his mother. Deeds does so, as well as mercilessly beating her "robber", and she continues to go out with him under the disguise of Pam Dawson, a school nurse from Winchestertonfieldville, Iowa, a town she 'made up' on the spot when asked where she was from, which later turns out to be a real place (within the movie).

Though Pam initially hopes to just get a good story on the new heir, she eventually falls for the unfailingly kind-hearted Deeds, and decides to tell him that she is not who she says she is, but Inside Access, in concert with Cedar (fed the truth by the "robber", still suffering from the effects of Deeds "saving" Bennett) reveals it to Deeds first. Heartbroken, and upset, Deeds decides to return home to Mandrake Falls and give his $40 billion inheritance to the United Negro College Fund. After returning to Mandrake Falls, he learns from Crazy Eyes (Steve Buscemi) that Cedar intends to sell off the company, which will cause thousands of people to lose their jobs. Babe follows Deeds to Mandrake Falls to win him back, but after saving her life when she falls through the ice over a lake, he rejects her, saying he does not really know who she is.

At a shareholders meeting, Cedar has everyone convinced to sell the company, until Deeds (who has bought a single share) arrives and manages to convince everyone not to sell. But Cedar claims control of a majority of the shares and the sale is approved. Babe arrives, and reveals that Blake's butler, Emilio (John Turturro), is Preston Blake's illegitimate son (at one point he had told Deeds that Blake treated him "like a son"), and the true heir.

As a result, Deeds' sale of his shares to Cedar is not legal. Emilio immediately takes control and fires Cedar, as well as the entire top brass at the company, with the exception of Cecil Anderson (Erick Avari), a good-hearted executive who had befriended Deeds (when he asks to remain, Emilio leaves the decision to Deeds, who quickly says yes). Babe reveals herself to Deeds, telling him who she 'really' is, thanking him for saving her, apologizing again for tricking him, and professing her love for him. They reconcile and kiss. As they leave the meeting, Emilio thanks Deeds for his support and asks how he can repay him. Deeds says that nothing is needed save for friendship, but Emilio gives Deeds a billion dollars to boot, some of which Deeds spends on Corvettes for the entire town, when he returns to Mandrake Falls and the pizzeria with new wife Babe, where he learns that Hallmark has bought one of his cards, the one he wrote for Babe.

Cast

• Adam Sandler as Longfellow Deeds, Preston Blake's nephew, a friendly, helpful owner of a small-town pizzeria who also writes greeting cards.
• Winona Ryder as Babe Bennett, a reporter for the tabloid TV show Inside Access, who pretends to be Pam Dawson, school nurse, to get close to and gather information on Deeds.
• John Turturro as Emilio Lopez, Preston Blake's long-serving butler and illegitimate son (therefore Deeds' cousin and the true heir to Blake Media). He has a habit of sneaking up on people unexpectedly, and has a foot fetish.
• Allen Covert as Marty, a junior reporter for Inside Access, infatuated with and a cohort of Babe, appearing in several disguises to spy on Deeds.
• Peter Gallagher as Chuck Cedar, the CEO for Blake Media, and Preston Blake's longtime number two. He plots to seize control of Blake Media.
• Jared Harris as Mac McGrath, the head of Inside Access who reports on Deeds' antics in New York. He later teams up with Chuck to drive Deeds out of town.
• Erick Avari as Cecil Anderson, the good-hearted General Counsel for Blake Media.
• Rob Schneider (uncredited, in two brief scenes) as Nazo, a food delivery man, the same character in another Sandler film, Big Daddy.
• Peter Dante as Murph, one of Deeds' drunkard friends who works at his pizzeria.
• Conchata Ferrell as Jan, a close friend of Deeds who works in the pizzeria and is a retired rodeo clown.
• Harve Presnell as Preston Blake, the billionaire founder of Blake Media who dies at the beginning of the film.
• Steve Buscemi as Crazy Eyes, a citizen of Mandrake Falls and one of Deeds' customers; he suffers from severe amblyopia.
• Brandon Molale as Kevin Ward, the New York Jets quarterback.
• Blake Clark as Buddy Ward, Kevin Ward's father.
• John McEnroe as himself
• Radio Man as himself; a homeless man who lives in Central Park.
• Jennifer Tisdale as a Card Reader.
• Al Sharpton as himself.
• J.B. Smoove as Reuben.
• Walter Williamson as Kurt.
• Roark Crichlow as William.
• Billy St. John as George.
• George Wallace as NAACP Administrator.
• Aloma Wright as Coretta Keeling.

Production

The producers were looking for a small, 'old-fashioned, New England-type' town close to New York, when they serendipitously discovered New Milford, Connecticut, and, upon having lunch there at "The Bistro Cafe", decided the town would be the perfect choice to portray the fictional home-town of Deeds, Mandrake Falls, New Hampshire, and the cafe was a great location to use as "Deeds' Pizza" restaurant.

Reception

Critical response

The film received mainly negative reviews from critics. On Yahoo! Movies, it was graded a C- from critics and a B- from users. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie received a rating of 22%, with the average rating score of 4.0/10.0. Mr. Deeds received three Razzie Award nominations including Worst Actor (Adam Sandler), Worst Actress (Winona Ryder) and Worst Remake or Sequel.

Box office

Though critically panned, the film was a major financial success. Box office:

• United States: US$126,293,453
• International: US$44,976,084
• Gross worldwide: US$171,269,537

Music

Soundtrack

No.	Title	Music	Length
1.	"Where Are You Going"	Dave Matthews Band	3:52
2.	"Sing"	Travis	3:48
3.	"Let My Love Open the Door"	Pete Townshend	2:44
4.	"Sweetest Thing"	U2	3:03
5.	"Wrong Impression"	Natalie Imbruglia	4:15
6.	"Happy in the Meantime"	Lit
7.	"Island in the Sun"	Weezer	3:20
8.	"Friends & Family"	Trik Turner
9.	"Space Oddity"	Adam Sandler & David Bowie	5:15
10.	"Falling"	Ben Kweller
11.	"Go to Town"	Counting Crows
12.	"I've Seen All Good People"	Yes	3:21

External links

• Official website
• Mr. Deeds at the Internet Movie Database
• Mr. Deeds at Rotten Tomatoes