Les drôles de Blackpool

Although mostly overlooked at the time of release, this is undoubtedly one of the best films of the 90's. Elegantly surreal, Funny Bones is filled with wonderful visuals and a timeless quality.

At the center of this story stands Tommy Fawkes, a reluctant young comedian struggling in his famous father's (Jerry Lewis) shadow. Fawkes is masterfully portrayed by Oliver Platt, an incredibly talented actor who is often placed in supporting roles. Adept at all roles, it's always refreshing to find him as our lead. Platt has a particular gift for portraying the edgy hero, reminiscent of Karl Malden at his best. Somehow, he manages to make Tommy dark, yet uncomplicated.

In contrast, we have Jack Parker--seemingly the simplest of characters, he is the darkest and most complicated of all. This offered many of us our first glimpse of Lee Evans, a brilliant young UK actor/comedian with an astonishing penchant for physical comedy. His energy alone is enough to leave the viewer completely awestruck. If Fate is kind, we should have the good fortune of seeing a great deal more of him.

As for the rest of this stellar cast, Leslie Caron is charming as ever, George Carl and Freddie Davies are pure energy, and Jerry Lewis is, well, Jerry Lewis (there is no higher compliment I can pay him).

Essentially, this film is a requisite for anyone who enjoys surreal, dark comedy with a philosophical edge and an often slapstick pace.

"The dark moon, she pulls the tides also." --Thomas Parker (Freddie Davies)

Despite the film being titled "Funny Bones" and having Jerry Lewis in the cast, this really isn't a comedy. Yes, I noticed that the picture currently shown for this film on IMDb says "A zany look at two comedians who will do anything for a laugh"--but this really is a lot of hyperbole. This isn't a knock against the film--just a knock at how it was marketed. I think you should be prepared for the type of film you are about to see.

"Funny Bones" begins with some sort of deal going bad on the water off of Blackpool, England. One man is chopped up by the blades of a boat and another is forced to jump into the water to save himself. What exactly happened and why is a complete mystery and bits and pieces of this are interspersed throughout the film.

The film then very abruptly changes to Las Vegas. A terribly unfunny man, Tommy Fawkes (Oliver Platt), is about to make his big debut at one of the big clubs. Not surprisingly, he bombs--and folks start walking out during his act. Now this happens from time to time...but what makes it different is that the guy is the son of a legendary comedian, George Fawkes (Jerry Lewis). It's obviously difficult living in your father's shadow--especially when you aren't talented. Soon Tommy disappears--and ends up in Blackpool to see if he can buy an act for himself. Now he knows he is terrible at telling jokes--so he wants to see if he can learn physical comedy. During this process, he accidentally bumps into some folks who have a dark connection to his dad--and learns several terrible secrets about his old man. I could say a lot more, but it would spoil the film.

In addition to the main plot discussed above, the plot begun at the start of the film seemed a bit dark, confusing and unnecessary--and not especially well integrated into the rest of the movie. It seemed to have VERY little to do with the Fawkes story and was choppy and seemed to get in the way of the main story--which was very compelling as I found myself wanting to see more interaction between Platt and Lewis. I also enjoyed was seeing some of the strange burlesque-style acts. Some were very funny and some were just cool. This was a nice little homage to the English acts which used to be big in Blackpool. But, the dark and violent elements of the story just seemed to get in the way and muddle the picture. Good but it could have been a lot better.

I do have to say from the outset that I really like this film, disjointed though it is, perhaps because it is so different. This is a story of a broken family and hidden secrets - Tommy Fawkes goes to Blackpool, once one of the world's showbiz capitals, to learn how to be funny; once there he finds a duo (played by veteran British comics Freddie Davies and George Carl) who he thinks have stolen his famous dad's act - but are things really as they seem? Jack Parker is a Blackpool born lad with the innate ability to be creatively humorous (Lee Evans is excellent in this role) while lacking in the social skills to survive in the real world.

Against this backdrop is something about mysterious eggs which hold some mystical secret or other (giving Oliver Reed yet another strange role as the oddball Dolly). The really interesting aspects of the story are the skeletons in the closet that bring Jack's mother (Leslie Caron) and Tommy's father (Jerry Lewis) together again. The strongest scenes though are the ones which truly shock - the flashback outlining the tragedy that has affected Jack's life, and the final few sequences in the show arena.

'Funny Bones' may be hard to fathom but I think it repays attention by giving its audience something a bit unexpected - plus some great performances along the way.

Not really a comedy - more a surreal, sometimes weirdly comic piece about comedians, about families, about the awfulness of having a famous father, about genius, about the problem of what makes a comic funny, about the sublime sadness of failure. Lee Evans is absolutely haunting as the tortured comic genius, the natural comic who is so purely a comedian that he can barely communicate except in gags, yet who will never be allowed to perform in public because of his dark past. Leslie Caron is heart-rending as his mother, a brave, faded French beauty stranded for ever singing mildly risque songs in Blackpool pubs, and their tender scenes together are for me the best thing in the whole film.

The whole cast is incredible...right down to Oliver Reed camping it up gloriously in a bizarre sub-plot which at first I thought might be part of the Evans' character's fevered imagination. It is a movie absolutely crammed with magic but in one of my favourite scenes, Oliver Platt arrives in Blackpool and instantly sees it peopled with characters from Donald McGill postcards - fat ladies, saucy girls with flouncy skirts, burly men. The ending is a bit wonky and looks to my eye to have been changed from a tragic one to a "happy" one to please audiences. In the two opening sequences, both Evans and Platt utter the words "I'm going to die" in very different circumstances, and mean very different things, and other variations on the theme of death and laughter follow - all this seemed to be pointing down a much darker alleyway than the one we got. Doesn't matter, though. Still a great movie.

How did I never hear of Lee Evans before I saw this movie? He is my new idol. When this movie came out, I gave it a miss because of Jerry Lewis (King of Comedy notwithstanding -- he gives me the creeps, man), but I caught it on Sundance the other night and was bowled over. It starts out sorta weird, but then hooks you with the story of this guy trying to be a standup comic in the shadow of his showbiz-legend dad (is there any worse word than "showbiz"? Maybe "node," but other than that, "showbiz" is just such a bad word!!!), and then all of a sudden you are in Blackpool, England, being treated to (a) some amazing vaudeville performers from an era sadly gone by, and (b) some amazing performances by clowny guys (not the creepy kind), and (c) Leslie Caron singing a torch song in a man-tailored shirt, and (d) a beautiful story of lost dreams, redemption, and wax eggs. Rent it, fool. Rent it now if you have a funny bone in your body.