Stuck on You

Stick to This: Stuck on You
by Michael Flanagan

Solid

I’m not a huge fan of the Farrelly Brothers.  I prefer my brothers comedy from the Coen’s, and traditionally the gross-out humor of the Farrellys hits too much gross out and not enough humor.  This has recently begun to change, with a safer balance of Me, Myself and Irene, which, while gross, showed some impressive attempts at actual humor, and Shallow Hal, which was the most thought-provoking piece of low-brow comedy they’ve done.  Stuck On You, though, by far surpasses these other comedies and successfully creates its own brand of subtle, somewhat disgusting, weird, enjoyable, touching humor.

There are some definite laugh-out-loud moments in Stuck on You.  The fact that the movie is about two conjoined twins doesn’t hurt much in the comedy area.  In one of my favorite bits, which can also be seen in the trailer, the twins get in a fight with each other; one hits the other and starts to run, the other chases—while they’re stuck together—and Greg Kinnear tells Matt Damon, “Yeah, you better run.”
 

But the brothers ask you to look past the comedy of the situation and to see the true heart of the film—this is a love story about brothers.  This kind of story is not done often, unless it involves the Civil War, or infidelity, or brothers who don’t know they’re brothers, or simple morons.  This seems to come from the hearts of the Farrellys, and it works most likely for this reason.

They never allow it to get sappy, always smartly keeping the humor right at the surface—but never by sacrificing the tone.  The balance they’ve developed in Stuck on You is truly perfect.  And with great performances by Kinnear and an impressive stab at comedy by Damon, with surprising candid humor from Cher and other great surprises, this comedy hopefully will push the Farrellys to another level.  Stuck on You is a good step.

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