December
12, 2003 | Don't look now, but Bobby and Peter Farrelly - the cheery
vulgarians who gave us Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber and There's
Something About Mary - have gone all softhearted and semi-respectable
just in time for Christmas.
Telltale
signs of their transformation already were apparent two years ago, when
the filmmaking siblings unveiled Shallow Hal, an oddly affecting
farce that relied relatively little on gross-out gags and scatological
humor (i.e., Farrelly trademarks). And now we have the sweetly funny
lunacy of their Stuck on You, an even kinder and gentler comedy
about the misadventures of adult conjoined twins.
In
the tricky lead roles of Bob and Walt Tenor, joined-at-the-hip co-owners
of a Martha's Vineyard diner, Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear double your
pleasure, double your fun, with performances that winningly balance
heart and humor. But wait, there's more: The illusion of their attachment
is sustained with a minimum of special effects, and a maximum of deft
physicality.
Walt
(Kinnear), the more outgoing of the pair, often acts on local stages,
even while brother Bob (Damon) prefers to remain literally in the shadows.
Bob's anxious avoidance of the spotlight can make for awkward moments
- especially while Walt is appearing in a one-man show - but when Walt
decides to try his luck in Hollywood, Bob reluctantly goes along for
the ride. Not surprisingly, complications ensue.
At
once warm-hearted and sharp-witted, Stuck on You freshens a formulaic
fish-out-of-water story with generous sprinklings of sentiment and absurdity.
Back home in Martha's Vineyard, Bob and Walt are nonchalantly accepted
by supportive friends and neighbors (many of whom, it should be noted,
have their own colorful quirks). In Hollywood, the brothers must muddle
through without their support system - but, since it is Hollywood, their
condition rarely elicits anything more than a second glance or a double
take.
Morty
O'Reilly (Seymour Cassel), Walt's seedy and near-senile agent, complains
that casting "Siamese twins" will be, at best, problematical.
But Bob's main worry is that he'll make a bad impression on a beautiful
e-mail pen-pal (Wen Yann Shih) who just happens to live in L.A. Meanwhile,
Walt lucks into success as the co-star of a prime-time TV drama with
- are you ready for this? are you sitting down? - Cher.
Cast
as herself - or, more precisely, as an inspired self-parody - Cher reminds
us of her considerable gifts as a sharp, straight-faced comedienne while
fearlessly making herself the butt of the movie's most deliciously nasty
satirical jokes. Likewise, Eva Mendes (Out of Time, The Fast and
the Furious) does a spot-on job of playing Eva, a ditzy starlet
whose generosity of spirit is surpassed only by her surgically enhanced
bust size.
The
Farrellys still have a lot to learn about such niceties as pacing, camera
placement and matching shots. (When Bob and Walt converse during a snowfall,
it's all too obvious that the scene was filmed during varying climatic
conditions.) But never mind: They're bound to keep you ho-ho-hoing with
the most surprisingly appealing comedy of the holiday movie season.