Is Adam Sandler serious?

Pigs are flying, Hell is freezing over. And gibberish-spouting, baseball-cap-wearing Adam Sandler is making the leap from moronic slacker to capital-A actor.

Contrary to what regularly tumbles from Sandler’s admittedly sophomoric — but often hilarious — mouth, this is no joke. He’s mid-leap, and where he lands may depend on not only his acting chops, but on the filmgoing public’s openness to giving the dude who once got into a knock-down, drag-out, on-screen brawl with Bob Barker a chance to show what he can do.

There’s no denying that Sandler is one of the country’s most bankable movie stars. (His goofily endearing body of work has grossed a whopping one billion dollars at the box office.) But is he an actor? Ah, there’s the rub.

Marching toward legitimacy
You’re not alone if you dismiss the “Saturday Night Live” alum as a regular guy who says and does stupid things in front of a camera for 90 minutes. Amusing? Sure. But an actor? Lots of people think not. Sandler “won” a Razzie for worst actor in 2000 for his fine work peeing on a wall in “Big Daddy,” and has been nominated five additional times. In the eyes of much of America, he’s a funny-enough schlub who hits the same rapidly diminishing note again and again.

But he’s pulling himself out of the muck. This holiday season marks the former Opera Man’s second foray into actual acting-land with a role in “Spanglish,” a heart-tugging, honest-to-goodness film written and directed by James L. Brooks, the auteur who made audiences tear up with “Terms of Endearment,” “Broadcast News” and “As Good as It Gets.”

And here’s where it gets interesting: All three of those films were nominated for best original screenplay and best picture Oscars; “Endearment” won both. And it’s no secret that the actors in Brooks’ films tend to make trips to the podium on Oscar night. So, will Sandler be able to snag an invitation to the big show? It’s not completely out of the question, which for many is a heck of a surprise considering that the closest Sandler has probably come to being honored at the Kodak Theatre is when he got free double prints the last time he took his photos in to get developed.

It’s not the first time he’s come within spitting distance of winning something other than an MTV Movie Award. Sandler first brushed up against Oscar’s gold in 2002 when he appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” to a surprising amount of critical acclaim. So much, in fact, that many dared whisper Sandler’s name as a possible contender for…shhh…an Academy Award.

But there’s more at stake than a shiny statue. If Sandler shows enough talent to back up his high-profile role — or at least doesn’t blow this opportunity — audiences might be able to make the leap to seeing him in an entirely different light. And that could mean a whole new layer to his career. The immature joker stigma could soften, replaced by a newfound respect from mainstream moviegoers. That’s got to be a tempting gold ring to try and grab.

From Mork to ‘Meatballs’
Plenty of stand-up comedians have made the transformation from buffoon to actor. It’s a long journey, but several have emerged on the other end with a new legitimacy and gravitas — and a far wider universe of roles to choose from. No doubt Sandler craves that kind of flexibility in his on-screen life. The goofball/hesitant-hero roles he takes on have got to be all starting to run together.

When Robin Williams toned down his manic on-stage antics, audiences began to see him as something far more than the suspended hyper-hummingbird comic he was when he first arrived on the scene. Heck, most children today don’t even know he was Mork or the hairiest stand-up comic of the ’70s and ’80s. A bold first step — the seemingly-against-type dramatic role in “The World According to Garp” — started his public transformation. And his reputation was buoyed along the way by strong performances in relatively weighty fare like “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Dead Poets Society,” and “The Fisher King” — which earned him critical buzz and a trio of Oscar nominations. He took home the gold with his role in 1997’s “Good Will Hunting.”

Serious doesn’t always equal success, though, not even for a Juilliard-trained actor like Williams. Critics expecting subtlety and restraint nearly laughed Williams out of the theater for the bash-you-over-the-head-with-a-rubber-chicken pathos of “Patch Adams.” He rebounded in 2002 with back-to-back creepy turns in “Insomnia” and “One-Hour Photo,” choices likely designed to make audiences forget about his earlier treacle-fest.

Sandler would also be well advised to follow in the footsteps of another “SNL” alum, Bill Murray. After making a splash on “Saturday Night Live,” Murray languished as a trifle in many people’s minds, thanks to hilarious but hardly Oscar-worthy fare like “Caddyshack,” where he played gopher-hunting groundskeeper Carl, “Stripes,” and “Meatballs.” He found incredible pop success with “Ghostbusters,” but it was hardly the stuff of tuxedos and awards banquets. Then he faded away, until “Groundhog Day” started his comeback and “Ed Wood” and “Rushmore” cemented it. The public bought it, and now’s he’s comedy’s elder statesman, with a much-ballyhooed Oscar nomination for “Lost in Translation” under his belt. By his willingness to take memorable, high-profile roles in quirky, small movies, Murray has carved out a new niche, far from the goofy fare of his youth.

Jim Carrey is another example of talented goofball turned real-live actor. Folks, this is the man who played both a burned fire marshal and female bodybuilder on “In Living Color,” then talked out of his butt for two Ace Ventura flicks. But he slowly set the nuttiness aside, and began taking less flashy but more upscale roles to show off his acting ability: “The Truman Show,” “Man on the Moon” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

But he didn’t stick exclusively to mopey everyman roles, and instead tossed in several fun yet hardly weightless characters along the way: a man with multiple personalities in the Farrelly Brothers’ “Me, Myself & Irene,” the iconic title character in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and now scene-chewing Count Olaf in this month’s “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” — alongside Meryl Streep and Jude Law. All of these performances were more than just cardboard caricatures. There’s some acting talent behind those elastic faces and limp-noodle movements. And that’s enough to keep audiences interested in his next role, whatever it may be.

Following in Carrey’s footsteps, another “In Living Color” alum recently soared from one-note joke to legitimate actor — and may have to find a space on his mantle for a certain gold statue because of it. Jamie Foxx, best-known for his portrayal of uglier-than-possible Wanda on “ILC,” found respectability with back-to-back dramatic turns for director Michael Mann, first as Muhammad Ali’s trainer in “Ali,” and then opposite Tom Cruise in “Collateral” — a role that was once meant for Adam Sandler. And now, thanks to his eerily spot-on performance as Ray Charles in “Ray,” Foxx is mentioned in the same breath as Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp and Liam Neeson — as a possible best actor nominee.

No respect
Still, nobody is saying it’s an easy road. There can be oodles of resistance to a comedian’s transformation to actor — if not from the audience, then from Hollywood itself. Industry snobbery over a comedian who makes his money making a fool of himself runs deep.

Rodney Dangerfield, after well-received turns in movies like “Back to School” and “Natural Born Killers,” was snubbed by Roddy McDowall, then head of the actors’ branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. When Dangerfield applied to become a member of the Academy, McDowall turned him down, suggesting that he hadn’t taken on “enough of the kinds of roles that allow a performer to demonstrate the mastery of his craft.” This from a man who — for much of America — will be best remembered for dressing up like a monkey. Eventually, the Academy reversed its decision and offered Dangerfield membership. Dangerfield passed.

Like Dangerfield, Sandler — who was a pallbearer at Dangerfield’s memorial service — deserves a chance to at least attempt a shift toward a career as an actor. If he fails to engage while trying on weightier roles, so be it. His audience will gladly follow him back to where he’s very comfortable, thank you very much. “The Waterboy 2,” anyone?

But — especially with a director as celebrated as James L. Brooks at the helm — Sandler just might show us something in “Spanglish.” To move beyond movie star and become an honest-to-goodness actor, Sandler must bring something to the table other than an ability to attract millions of fart-loving boys to the multiplex. Perhaps being plopped outside his element is exactly what he needs to shake the last vestiges of frat-boy stigma, and leave a whole new audience of discriminating filmgoers buzzing about that nice young man who held his own on screen with Cloris Leachman and Tea Leoni.

“And the Oscar goes to…Adam Sandler.” Don’t laugh. Sandler’s got to be hoping that this time, at least, he might be able to make us cry.

MORE FROM MOVIE OPINIONS

Can word-of-mouth sell ‘The Road’?

Can word-of-mouth sell ‘The Road’? ‘Princess’ avoids the elephant in the room Oscar season nears, but where’s the buzz? Hollywood’s vampire obsession may bleed out Does ‘Precious’ stereotype big black women? Newsweek: The problem with ‘Precious’ When it comes to stardom, Clooney has smarts ‘Saw’ franchise creates buzz, but is it any good? Remembering concert documentaries that rock theGrio: ‘This Is It’ a final act fit for a king   Add Movie opinions headlines to your news reader: