Bobby and Peter Farrelly’s latest is a parable about conjoined twins, and though it lacks the laugh-a-minute comic mastery of their magnificent Kingpin or Shallow Hal’s cutting insights about body image, Stuck on You is still a big-hearted charmer. Walt (Greg Kinnear) and Bob (Matt Damon) are joined at the hip and they share a liver, but they’ve led a relatively normal life nonetheless in Martha’s Vineyards. But Walt aspires for stardom in Hollywood, and has the acting chops to do it, so how can the shy Bob possibly hold him back?
To varying degrees of success, Stuck on You milks the gag of literally inseparable twins for all it’s worth with scenes involving one brother taking a shower, or having an intimate conversation, or acting in a one-man show, or chasing booty while the other has to hang out on the “sidelines.” But once the twins reach Hollywood the Farrellys find plenty of things to say about the movie business and its obsession with perfect bodies. Playing herself, Cher is Walt and Bob’s diabolical co-star who frets over her career trajectory and the size of her bony ass, and Eva Mendes sends up her plastic surgery as a sweet-natured aspiring actress, April Mercedes, who befriends the twins. But, truth be told, the central gag wears thin and the Farrellys’ sweet sentimentality gets in the way of their storytelling.
The filmmakers deserve a humanitarian award for repeatedly casting actors as characters with developmental disabilities, but this time his actors aren’t given a strong enough situation to play in; here they feel like well-intentioned window dressing. Still, the Farrellys convey sincerity and sympathy for their so-called “freaks of nature” and manage to get across a handful of wildly original sequences, especially the climactic musical number.
They also prove once again how good they are with actors: Meryl Streep, better here than she was in the The Hours, proves once again that she’s not only one of our great American actresses but one of our greatest comedians ; Damon’s performance is more emotionally honest than his over-emoting Mr. Ripley; and compare the depth and pain of Kinnear’s turn to his surfacy performance in Auto Focus. Unfortunately, the Oscars don’t give nods to virtuoso comic performances any more than they do to David Cronenberg’s body-horrored protagonists. It took years for Cronenberg to be taken seriously by the film community, and the Farrellys are fast on his heels, even with a lesser work like Stuck on You.
Image/Sound
Stuck on You gets a warm and unpretentious transfer every bit as welcoming as the film. Colors are vibrant and sensuous without looking invasive, blacks are solid, and skin tones (even Cher’s face) appear positively real. The audio doesn’t fare as well. Frequency response is good, as is stereo separation, but the dialogue often sounds flat or muddled, though this appears to be the case more so during scenes where ADR was used.
Extras
I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but the Farrelly brothers really don’t know how good they are at what they do. Recorded after a long night of shooting The Ringer (the Johnny Knoxville comedy the brothers produced for Fox), this is a noticeably un-caffeinated track. Bobby, whose voice is a shrill version of Peter’s, dominates the track, and his contributions are largely uninspired. Peter seems to exist here only to respond to whatever his brother says, like laughing at an actor’s name because it sounds like “soupy bowels.” Next up are eight excellent deleted/extended/alternate scenes that are not to be missed if you are a serious fan of the film, especially the alternate “Pavlov’s Dong” bit. Some are funnier than others while others are flat-out profound. A blooper reel totally misses, as does the “It’s Funny” featurette, which features the cast and crews from Stuck on You and other Farrelly Brothers films trying to explain “the Farrelly formula,” except the interpretations are no more profound than, “They know how to push the envelope.” The “Stuck Together” making-of featurette traces the film’s 13-year journey to the big screen and will seriously give Cher fans a major hard-on. Rounding out the disc is “Making it Stick,” a make-up effects ode to the fleshy thing that kept Damon and Kinnear stuck together, and trailers for Stuck on You, Cheaper by the Dozen, There’s Something About Mary: Collector’s Edition, and In Living Color: Season One.
Overall
Leave it to the Farrelly brothers to make the most profound ode to brotherly love since the Taviani brothers equally naughty Padre Padrone.
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