Stuck on You
Opens Friday, Dec. 12
To hear the Farrelly brothers tell it, the idea for "Stuck on You" -- about a pair of conjoined twin brothers -- has been sticking around for 13 years, right around the time the filmmaking siblings wrote "Dumb and Dumber".
The stick-to-it-ive-ness may be admirable, but the extended gestation period hasn't resulted in a stronger comedy.
While it has its moments of pure Farrelly inspiration and swell performances from Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear (not to mention Cher and an uncredited Meryl Streep), the patented blend of the outrageous and the sweet that has become the brothers' trademark struggles to find the desired balance here.
This time, when in doubt, the Farrellys continually err on the maudlin side.
That kind of sticky stuff is not what the "There's Something About Mary" crowd has come to expect from the brothers, and, along with its slightly older-skewing cast, the film will probably be in the still-respectable "Shallow Hal" vicinity in terms of total boxoffice.
Joined at the hip for all of their 32 years, nonidentical Tenor twins Bob Damon) and Walt (Kinnear, who, in the poster looks more like Jeff Daniels' twin), haven't let their physical condition get in the way of living normal-type lives in their close-knit Martha Vineyard,'s Mass., neighborhood.
But when amateur actor Walt, who has just finished playing Capote in a local production of the one-man show "Tru" (with panic attack-prone Bob cowering at his side breathing into a paper bag), decides it's time to take his act to Hollywood, things keep finding a way of coming between them.
For one, there's Bob's surprisingly successful career, with him landing a dream gig playing opposite Cher on the hit TV drama, "Honey and the Beaze".
For another, there's May Fong (newcomer Wen Yann Shih), Bob's longtime Internet girlfriend who is still being kept in the dark as to why Bob and Walt go everywhere together.
Ultimately, the only resolution appears to be finally having the operation that will physically separate them, but with them sharing one liver that mainly belongs to Bob, there's a 50-50 chance that Walt won't make the cut.
It's easy to see why Bobby and Peter Farrelly initially responded to the idea (first pitched by Charles B. Wessler & Bennett Yellin) of brothers playing such an integral role in each other's lives, but, ironically, it might be their close proximity to the story's themes that keeps getting in the way of the comedy.
Every time inspired momentum starts to build, it's often thrown off track by bits of ill-timed sentiment. And that's never a good thing when you're dealing with what's essentially a one-joke premise.
The players are certainly more than game. While Damon and Kinnear navigate their imposing physical situation (effectively contained by special makeup effects supervisor Tony Gardner's clever prosthetics) with supple dexterity, Cher has evident fun playing off her diva image and Streep cuts loose as Kinnear's co-star in an all-singing, all-dancing (with choreography by director Adam Shankman) stage production of "Bonnie and Clyde".
STUCK ON YOU
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox presents
a Conundrum Entertainment/Charles B. Wessler production
Credits:
Director-screenwriters: Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly
Story by: Charles B. Wessler & Bennett Yellin & Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Producers: Bradley Thomas, Charles. B. Wessler, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Executive producer: Marc S. Fischer
Director of photography: Dan Mindel
Production designer: Sidney J. Bartholomew Jr.
Editors: Christopher Greenbury, Dave Terman
Costume designer: Deena Appel
Music supervisors: Tom Wolfe & Manish Raval
Cast:
Bob Tenor: Matt Damon
Walt Tenor: Greg Kinnear
April: Eva Mendes
May: Wen Yann Shih
Herself: Cher
Morty O'Reilly: Seymour Cassel
Mimmy: Pat Crawford Brown
Himself: Griffin Dunne
Running time -- 118 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
To hear the Farrelly brothers tell it, the idea for "Stuck on You" -- about a pair of conjoined twin brothers -- has been sticking around for 13 years, right around the time the filmmaking siblings wrote "Dumb and Dumber".
The stick-to-it-ive-ness may be admirable, but the extended gestation period hasn't resulted in a stronger comedy.
While it has its moments of pure Farrelly inspiration and swell performances from Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear (not to mention Cher and an uncredited Meryl Streep), the patented blend of the outrageous and the sweet that has become the brothers' trademark struggles to find the desired balance here.
This time, when in doubt, the Farrellys continually err on the maudlin side.
That kind of sticky stuff is not what the "There's Something About Mary" crowd has come to expect from the brothers, and, along with its slightly older-skewing cast, the film will probably be in the still-respectable "Shallow Hal" vicinity in terms of total boxoffice.
Joined at the hip for all of their 32 years, nonidentical Tenor twins Bob Damon) and Walt (Kinnear, who, in the poster looks more like Jeff Daniels' twin), haven't let their physical condition get in the way of living normal-type lives in their close-knit Martha Vineyard,'s Mass., neighborhood.
But when amateur actor Walt, who has just finished playing Capote in a local production of the one-man show "Tru" (with panic attack-prone Bob cowering at his side breathing into a paper bag), decides it's time to take his act to Hollywood, things keep finding a way of coming between them.
For one, there's Bob's surprisingly successful career, with him landing a dream gig playing opposite Cher on the hit TV drama, "Honey and the Beaze".
For another, there's May Fong (newcomer Wen Yann Shih), Bob's longtime Internet girlfriend who is still being kept in the dark as to why Bob and Walt go everywhere together.
Ultimately, the only resolution appears to be finally having the operation that will physically separate them, but with them sharing one liver that mainly belongs to Bob, there's a 50-50 chance that Walt won't make the cut.
It's easy to see why Bobby and Peter Farrelly initially responded to the idea (first pitched by Charles B. Wessler & Bennett Yellin) of brothers playing such an integral role in each other's lives, but, ironically, it might be their close proximity to the story's themes that keeps getting in the way of the comedy.
Every time inspired momentum starts to build, it's often thrown off track by bits of ill-timed sentiment. And that's never a good thing when you're dealing with what's essentially a one-joke premise.
The players are certainly more than game. While Damon and Kinnear navigate their imposing physical situation (effectively contained by special makeup effects supervisor Tony Gardner's clever prosthetics) with supple dexterity, Cher has evident fun playing off her diva image and Streep cuts loose as Kinnear's co-star in an all-singing, all-dancing (with choreography by director Adam Shankman) stage production of "Bonnie and Clyde".
STUCK ON YOU
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox presents
a Conundrum Entertainment/Charles B. Wessler production
Credits:
Director-screenwriters: Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly
Story by: Charles B. Wessler & Bennett Yellin & Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Producers: Bradley Thomas, Charles. B. Wessler, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Executive producer: Marc S. Fischer
Director of photography: Dan Mindel
Production designer: Sidney J. Bartholomew Jr.
Editors: Christopher Greenbury, Dave Terman
Costume designer: Deena Appel
Music supervisors: Tom Wolfe & Manish Raval
Cast:
Bob Tenor: Matt Damon
Walt Tenor: Greg Kinnear
April: Eva Mendes
May: Wen Yann Shih
Herself: Cher
Morty O'Reilly: Seymour Cassel
Mimmy: Pat Crawford Brown
Himself: Griffin Dunne
Running time -- 118 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/19/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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