(Credits: Best of Netflix / YouTube Still)

Don’t worry, you’ve read that right. Adam Sandler is, in fact, working on a psychological thriller. And yes, it does sound a little weird at first because, after all, this is the same guy who built a career making people laugh with goofy comedies, and we love him for that.

Last year alone, he did two Netflix comedies: Happy Gilmore 2 and Jay Kelly. Easy watches, familiar vibe, classic Sandler. And now transitioning from that to seeing him in something darker again? That’s definitely going to raise a few eyebrows.

And you’re right to question, ‘What do you mean “again”?’ So here is the thing: if you don’t know, he has done it before in Uncut Gems, and he has been really good at it. No, it wasn’t a fluke. It is still known as one of his best performances and is highly appreciated by his fans. So now, with Time Out, he is going straight towards the serious territory again.

The film comes from Scott Cooper, who’s the director behind Netflix’s The Pale Blue Eye, and that alone should give you a hint of what’s coming with Time Out. We are not looking at a light or breezy thriller, and it’s definitely not going to be predictable. Let’s take a look at the plot of the film.

What is Time Out about?

At the centre of the story is Vincent, played by Adam Sandler, who loses his job and chooses to hide it from his family. And that’s really where it all begins. Because instead of facing it, instead of sitting everyone down and saying what happened as he should, he does the exact opposite. He carries on with life as if nothing has changed. Same routine, same conversations, same everything.

For a while, it works… Or at least, it looks like it does. But the thing about a lie like this is that it gets exposed pretty easily. It grows and grows, and one fine day it explodes. After making small cover-ups, Vincent realises that he is not just hiding the truth anymore. Instead, he is living inside something he has made up. Sounds scary, right? Wait till you read further.

To keep everything from falling apart, he starts pulling other people into it. Friends, acquaintances, basically people who trust him. What begins as a secret eventually turns into something much bigger, much harder to control, especially when money gets involved through an investment scheme and we all know how that ends.

At that point, everything becomes about keeping the entire thing from collapsing.

The film is based on the French feature L’Emploi du temps, and it explores tension. And watching Vincent hold it all together (or try to) is where it really gets interesting.

For Sandler, this is a completely different space from what audiences have seen recently. This time, he is not going to get any punchlines to ease things up. It’s all in the restraint, and Sandler is in the centre of it.

What makes it more interesting is the cast. With brilliants like Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, and Steve Zahn around, one thing is for sure: this is not at all a small or casual project. These are actors who are known to work when the material gives them something to work with.

There’s no release date yet, but the announcement is enough to get your hopes high.