MOVIE REVIEW

Stuck on You  (2003)

Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes
Directors: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly

Rating: PG-13

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Release Date: 12.12.03

Review Posted: 12.12.03

Spoilers: None

By Matt Sienkiewicz

"Stuck On You" Only Half Funny

So first things first. This film, along with the rest of the Farrelly catalogue, needs to be considered almost exclusively in terms of its comedy. Yes, per usual, Stuck on You features a formulaic three-act narrative that pulls out a perky little moral in the end, but so far as storytelling goes the brother's skill falls somewhere between a Lifetime original and a really good beer ad. With a film like this what you're looking for in exchange for the ticket price is laughs. If the story helps the laughs along, it’s all the better, but if it gets in the way there's going to be a problem. This pretty much summarizes the Stuck on You experience. When the jokes come first, they often come through in a big way. But when they play a supporting role to the story, you'll be happy you sprung for the Indiglo display option on your Timex.

Stuck on You is born out of a simple, undeniably funny concept. What if conjoined twins lived normal lives and did pretty well for themselves? At first blush the comedic possibilities are endless. They'd have to play sports together, if one had a date the other would have to be there, if one used the bathroom, etc etc. And that's what the first half hour or so of the film is made of, visual jokes where they do things together and verbal exchanges that set up punch lines like "well, where was I when this happened?" Of course, upon closer inspection it becomes fairly apparent that these are all pretty much the same jokes with different costumes and vocal patterns. To keep the comedy rolling conjoined twins Bo (Matt Damon) and Walt Tenor (Greg Kinnear) head west for Hollywood to chase Walt's dream of being an actor and to bring Bo closer to his internet love interest.

This is the point where the Farrellys’ narrative chops are put to the test, and sadly it becomes immediately apparent why they're most famous for scenes involving semen in hair and testicles in zippers. What they come up with is a nicely satirical, surprisingly bodily fluidless story of Hollywood struggle and success. They do a nice job of respecting their unusual protagonists and in the end it more or less makes sense. But the storytelling itself is clunky and meandering, taking time for unnecessary narrative setups that would be better devoted to more of the film's comic set pieces, a few of which undoubtedly rank with the Farelllys’ best.

But while the script is strong at times and drags at others, the directors do deserve credit for pulling out consistently praise-worthy comic performances. Greg Kinnear outclasses Matt Damon in general but the two come together as a surprisingly formidable comedic pair, excelling particularly with the clean cut physical comedy the film's premise makes possible. The rest of the cast is littered with better actors than the script deserves and the result is some great moments to go along with a bunch that help point out some of the film's writing isn't quite where it needs to be.

In the end Stuck on You basically amounts to a series of great jokes and sight gags embedded into a story that's as saccharine sweet as it is obvious. It's a fairly classic example of a great short film concept stretched to feature length with middling success. The comic vignettes are often worth the price of admission, but the film makes you wish audiences were more open to the idea of an episodic film. One that doesn't spend the majority of its time setting up the story and resolving it, instead taking its two hours to just explore ideas, comic or otherwise.

But until then, this is about the best we have the right to expect from this sort of Hollywood comedy. It'll make you laugh and just maybe for a second or two make you care for its appropriately cartoonish characters. And to address the obvious, it doesn't feature your standard Farrelly fare so far as brand of humor goes, as they work hard for their jokes and avoid the scatological altogether. It's a refreshing change for them and it damn near works, though fans of the Brothers may well find something is missing.

Rating: êê  (out of 4)

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