Deux en un

I'm actually a big Farrelly Brothers fan (and not just because they're from Rhode Island). So, it's with great reluctance that I write a less than stellar review of "Stuck On You".

It's not a horrible film, but like many recent Farrelly releases it's muddled and illustrates a tug of war between the movies the Farrellys want to make the and movies the Farrelly's fans want them to make.

"Stuck On You" tells the tale of Bob and Walt Tenor, conjoined twins who live a good, peaceful life on Nantucket Island. That is until Walt (played by Greg Kinnear) catches the acting bug and wants to move to LA. The story and gags from there mostly revolve around a fish-out-of-water story (but two fish joined at the side) and the brothers' ongoing ignorance of their own condition.

At one point, Bob (played by Matt Damon) tells Walt that he'll never make it in acting. Why? Because he needs a better tan. Though these aren't the idiot gags that we all enjoyed in "Dumb & Dumber". In fact, both of the brothers are very bright. Their ignorance is more a function of their being so close (physically and emotionally) for such a long period of time and because back home everyone accepted them completely. They've become blind to their own handicap.

It's a nice message and it is delivered poignantly at times. More often, though, we're hammered with it over and over again while the Farrellys do their best to make the movie look more like one of their more celebrated, more tasteless, and funnier movies like "Dumb & Dumber", "Something About Mary", or "Me, Myself and Irene".

In all of the latter movies, there was no illusion that we were there primarily there for the gutter chuckles, but each movie also had characters we really liked. Let's face it. We were all rooting for Lloyd and Harry in "Dumb and Dumber" even if they were morons.

In "Stuck On You", the main characters are all a lot flatter than what we've seen before. Plus, one of the most disappointing aspects in "Stuck On You" is the poor use of the minor characters. In previous movies we got some of our biggest laughs from the sideline characters, while in "Stuck On You" they're used mostly as window dressing. Eva Mendes is primarily a cleavage delivery device in "Stuck On You", which is a shame because she's not a bad actress and she could have some comedic chops.

How are Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon in this film? They both do as good as can be expected. We're not used to seeing Damon in comedic films (his last was "Dogma"), and I think he does comedy very well. I'm reluctant to comment directly on their performances because it's not fair. The characters are flat and that's not their fault.

Sadly, this isn't a fluke for the Farrellys. It's part of an ongoing trend. Their animated movie, "Osmosis Joe", more closely resembled a feature-length public health announcement starring Chris Rock and Bill Murray. "Shallow Hal" dealt with superficiality in much heavier, dramatic tones than we were led to believe in the movie's trailers.*

In "Stuck On You", the Farrellys try to swerve back to their poop-and-fart-joke roots, but deep down you can tell they want to make more serious, thematic movies.

I would have no problem if the Farrellys decided to do a more serious, dramatic film. I would also have no problem if the Farrellys decided to do more locker-room humor comedies. But I do have a problem with them trying to do both at the same time. It's just not working.

* NOTE - While I'm not shopping for the DVD, I did enjoy "Shallow Hal" once I realized (and accepted) that the movie was a lot heavier than the trailers depicted. That said, there were a lot of people in the cinema who were expecting something like "Dumb & Dumber" and they were plenty unhappy about it. I don't blame them.

I was worried with the 5.6 rating this was going to be average at best but it's so well acted and delivered I can't understand who didn't like it. It avoids cheap jokes at the expense of the brother's conjoined condition yet delivers laugh after laugh in a good-natured and fun way. Damon and Kinnear deliver high quality character depth with warmth and charm, well above midnight double feature level and the star cast nods are icing on the cake. The film is just good fun all the way through. Well worth the time to watch it and it seems it is a somewhat overlooked classy film.

This turned out to be a surprisingly effective comedy. Okay, sure, you can say that a movie that pokes fun at conjoined twins is in poor taste, but there's nothing malicious about it -- it feels, if you can believe it, genuine.

You really get a sense of the tenderness and the bond that has developed between the two brothers. Of course, as you'd expect from the Farrelly brothers, it's laugh-out-loud funny. As you might not expect, there's not really any gross-out humor: it's more "Hal" than "Mary". If you can't tell, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.

Some gag highlights: Cher with her boyfriends, Matt Damon's stage fright, Greg Kinnear in a animal costume.

To be honest, I am still a little amazed at how much I liked this film. I resisted seeing it for a long time because the concept sounded so offensive. But offensive is the last word I would use to describe this movie. Hilarious would be more accurate. The conjoined twin thing never feels like fodder for cheap jokes. Yes, it plays prominently in the plot, but it just never feels like you are laughing at them, only with them. There is genuine affection for the two main characters, played expertly by Damon and Kinnear, that really shines thru. To be absolutely honest, a lot of what makes this film so incredible is hard (for me, at least) to describe. All I can say is that it's funny, it's touching, it's a bit of Farrelly brothers magic. See it, you won't regret it.

Bob (Matt Damon) and Walt (Greg Kinnear) are conjoined twins (joined at their lower trunks--they share a liver) from Massachusetts. They own a burger joint named "Quickie Burger" and Walt has a love of acting. Walt decides to move to California to try his luck at the big time, and although Bob is initially reluctant, he also has a beautiful "Internet pal" in California who he's been talking to for more than three years.

Compared to some of directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly's other films, such as Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself And Irene, we could say that the humor in Stuck On You is much more subtle. That fact may be off-putting to viewers who come to Stuck On You primarily as fans of the Farrelly Brothers' previous work. There are still outrageous gags here, but they tend to be funnier if you exercise your intellect a bit, and believe it or not they are more rooted in reality than some other Farrelly Brothers films. If you are familiar with Daisy and Violet Hilton's story, for example--they were infamous sideshow performers who were conjoined twins--you'll note similarities, such as how they approached relationships with persons of the opposite sex.

Like much of the Farrelly Brothers other work, however, Stuck On You is as heartwarming as funny, and on one level, it's primarily a very odd romance film. It also seems that perhaps this is the most personal of their films so far, and it may very well be a depiction of their love for each other as brothers. That also gives Stuck On You a slightly more serious edge, but one that works very well. This is a quality drama in addition to being a comedy leaning towards absurdism. That may sound like a strange combination, but it flowed smoothly for me as a viewer.

The performances by Damon and Kinnear are on target, and their love interests, May (Wen Yann Shih) and April (Eva Mendes) are intriguing and not at all clichéd. The extended cameos by Cher and Meryl Streep, as themselves, are very entertaining, and the supporting cast is excellent.